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WORKS  ON   LITERATURE 

BY 

HENRY   S.    PANCOAST 

An  Introduction  to  English  Literature. 

With  maps,  chronological  tables,  and  study  lists  of  repre 
sentative  works  for  collateral  reading.  556  pp.  I6mo. 
$1  25.  net. 

The  Nation  :  ''  It  treats  the  history  of  English  literature 
as  closely  connected  with  general  history.  The  style  is  inter 
esting,  the  conception  broad  and  clear  the  biographical  details 
nicely  subordinated  to  matters  more  important,  and.  as  we  said 
of  the  book  in  its  earlier  form,  not  even  the  dullest  pupil  can 
study  it  without  feeling  the  historical  and  logical  continuity  of 
English  Literature  '' 

Representative  English  Literature. 

514  pp      Large   1 2mo.     $1.60,  net. 

Includes  with  a  briefer  and  earlier  form  of  the  historical  and 
critical  matter  of  the  Introduction  the  following  selections 
(each  complete):  Chaucer:  The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale  ;  Good 
Counseil.  Spenser:  Prothalamion.  Shakespeare'.  Merchant 
of  Venice  (entire)  Bacon:  Of  Great  Place  :  Five  Elizabethan 
Songs.  Milton:  L'Allegro:  II  Penseroso.  Dryden  :  Song 
for  St.  Cecilia's  Day  Addison  :  Ned  Softly  the  Poet;  Sir 
Roger  at  Church:  The  Fine  Lady's  Journal.  I'o/>e :  The 
Rape  of  the  Lock.  Burns:  Poems  Wordsworth:  Poems. 
Coleridge:  Ancient  Mariner  Scott:  Poems.  Lamb : 
Christ  s  Hospital  Five-and-Thirty  Years  Ago.  Byron  : 
Poems.  Keats:  Poems.  Carlyle :  On  Rpbert  Burns. 
Macaulay :  On  Samuel  Johnson.  Browning:  Poems. 
Tennyson  :  Poems,  Etc. 

An  Introduction  to  American  Literature. 

With  study  lists  of  works  to  be  read,  references,  chrono 
logical  tables,  and  portraits.  393  pp  16mo. 

This  book  follows  the  main  lines  of  the  author  s  "  Intro 
duction  to  English  Literature.''  The  special  influence  of  our 
history  upon  our  literature  is  shown,  and  the  attention  is 
chiefly  concentrated  on  a  limited  number  of  typical  authors 
and  works,  treated  at  some  length.  An  effort  is  made 
to  avoid  the  dryer  biographical  details  and  to  present  each 
author  as  a  distinct  living  person. 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO. 

29  W.  23d  St.,  New  York       378  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 


BENJAMIN      FRANKLIN 


AN  INTRODUCTION 


TO 


AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


BY 

HENRY   S.    PANCOAST 

Author  of  ''''An  Introduction  to  English  Littrature"  and 
"Representative  English  Literature'''' 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY   HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1898 


Copyright,  1898, 

BY 

HENRY    HOLT    &    CO, 


ROBERT  DRUMMOND,   KT.ECTROTYPER  ANP  PRINTER.  NEW  YORK. 


£o  nig  Sisters, 

WHO    HAVE    BEEN    IN    THIS, 

AS    IN    ALL    OTHER    THINGS, 

MY   CONSTANT    AND    READY    HELPERS. 


'•  Democracy  is  still  on  trial  It  must  justify  itself  or 
die.  Lowell  states  one  of  the  standards  thus  :  '  Democ 
racy  must  show  its  capacity  for  producing,  not  a  higher 
average  man,  but  the  highest  possible  types  of  manhood 
in  all  its  manifold  varieties,  or  it  is  a  failure,'  .  .  .  That 
this  highest  type  of  manhood  may  be  attained  in  our 
country,  under  the  existing  opportunities  of  self-develop 
ment,  has  been  frequently  claimed,  and  if  this  life  be 
possible,  then  the  expression  of  it  should  be  also.  The 
highest  possible  type  of  literature  should  succeed  the 
highest  possible  type  of  manhood  .  .  .  This  national 
literature  must  be  the  development,  consciously  or  un 
consciously,  of  all  the  best  literary  powers  of  the  best 
American  people  Such  a  national  literature  is  indis 
pensable  to  the  union  of  these  States — not  that  union 
based  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  bound  by 
political  regulations  of  their  making  but  the  essential 
union  of  common  sentiments  and  ideals  secured  by  a 
common  pride  in  intellectual  achievement,  and  a  part 
nership  in  patriotism." — Professor  Charles  F.  Kent's  Inaugural 
Address  on  Literature  and  Life. 


PREFACE 


THE  plan  and  purpose  of  this  book  can  be  stated  in 
a  few  words.  It  is  intended  as  a  companion-book  to 
my  u  Introduction  to  English  Literature,"  and  it  has 
been  prepared — so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  subject 
permitted — according  to  the  same  general  scheme. 

The  first  thing  required  of  a  book  of  this  character 
is  that  it  shall  really  bring  the  reader  into  vital  rela 
tion  with  the  best  works  in  the  literature  of  which  it 
treats, — that  it  shall  induce  him  to  read  or  re-read 
them  with  both  delight  and  understanding.  I  have 
tried  to  do  this  by  treating  our  greater  authors  at 
comparative  length ;  by  making  their  personality  as 
real  and  living  as  I  could;  by  adding  some  critical 
discussion  of  their  chief  works;  and  by  furnishing 
study  lists  containing  suggestions  for  reading  and 
bibliographical  references. 

AVithout  question  our  literature  does  include  cer 
tain  works  which  we  should  know  not  merely  because 
they  were  written  by  Americans,  but  because  they 
are  veritably  literature.  The  importance  of  such 
romances  as  The  Scarlet  Letter,  such  essays  as  Emer- 

v 


Vi  PREFACE 

son's  Nature,  such  ballads  as  the  best  of  Longfellow's 
or  AVhittier's,  is  more  than  national.  These  works 
have  their  place  in  the  mental  life  of  every  liberally 
educated  person.  It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that 
when  compared  with  that  of  many  other  nations 
America's  total  contribution  to  the  world's  literature 
is  both  inferior  in  character  and  insignificant  in 
amount.  If  American  literature  had  no  claim  upon 
us  other  than  its  intrinsic  literary  value,  the  propor 
tion  of  time  which  it  could  justly  demand  from  us 
would  be  comparatively  small.  But  the  study  of  par 
ticular  authors  and  their  works  is  by  no  means  the 
only  reason  for  a  systematic  study  of  our  literature. 
That  study  has,  or  should  have,  an  interest  for  us 
because  of  its  close  and  important  relation  to  our 
national  life.  Our  intellectual  growth  as  evidenced 
in  our  literature  is  a  part  of  our  past  and  the  earnest 
of  our  future. 

Stopford  Brooke,  in  a  recent  book  of  his,  has  said : 
"  True  history  lies,  not  in  the  statement  of  events  of 
which  we  cannot  be  certain  how  they  occurred,  but 
in  the  statement  of  how  men  at  any  time  thought 
and  felt.  .  .  .  The  history  of  the  race  is  in  the 
history  of  what  men  thought  and  felt ;  and  it  is 
written,  not  in  annals,  not  in  chronicles,  not  in  State 
papers,  not  in  the  stores  of  the  record  offices  of 
nations,  but  in  the  literatures  of  the  tribes  and  peo 
ples  of  mankind.  There  is  truth  worth  knowing ;  all 
the  rest  is  pleasant  enough,  but  it  is  only  more  or  less 
probable  in  comparison  with  the  certainty  we  attain 
when  we  read  a  poem  or  a  story  of  how  men  thought 


PREFACE  Vll 

and  what  they  felt."  *  Thus  our  study  means  much 
more  than  the  study  for  their  purely  literary  value  of 
the  few  masterpieces  which  are  likely  to  hecome  part 
of  the  common  heritage  of  English-speaking  people. 
Besides  these  there  are  many  works  which  should -be 
studied  by  every  American,  if  for  nothing  else,  because 
of  their  relation  to  our  national  history  and  ideals. 
The  Bigloiv  Papers,  the  Harvard  Commemoration 
Ode,  Whittier's  tribute  to  Lincoln, — all  these,  and 
others  like  them,  have  their  place  in  the  education  of 
American  youth.  They  should  be  given  the  fullest 
chance  to  do  their  work  of  quickening  our  national 
conscience  and  lifting  us  to  nobler  life.  And  it  is 
not  books  only  that  help  to  elevate.  The  personal 
example  of  such  author-patriots  as  Lowell,  Whittier, 
and  Curtis,  of  such  stainless  scholars  as  Longfellow, 
should  be  a  most  widespread  and  potent  influence  for 
good.  In  a  great  commercial  nation  such  as  ours, 
the  inspiration  from  the  life  and  aims  of  the  scholar 
and  the  poet  is  especially  needed  to  correct  the  ten 
dency  to  strive  only  for  the  commonplace  and  the 
practical. 

Realizing,  then,  that  a  large  part  of  the  deepest  life 
of  America  is  recorded  in  its  literature  and  inseparable 
from  it,  I  have  accordingly  tried  to  present  our 
literary  history  in  its  true  relation  to  the  history  of 
our  people  and  to  make  two  points  especially  clear: 
first,  that  our  literature  is,  in  its  origin,  a  branch  of 
that  of  England,  and  that  its  relation  to  the  mother 

*  "The  Old  Testament  and  Modern  Life,"  pp.  195-197. 


Vlll  PKEFACE 

literature  and  its  gradual  divergence  from  it  must  be 
constantly  kept  in  view;  second,  that  our  literature, 
springing  up  originally  in  separate  English  colonies, 
is  in  its  beginning  a  literature  of  sections,  and  that 
its  history  is  the  history  of  a  gradual  approximation 
towards  a  national  unity  of  character.  The  appre 
ciation  of  this  last  fact  is,  in  my  judgment,  an  in 
dispensable  preliminary  to  any  real  grasp  of  the 
meaning  of  our  literature's  growth. 

II.  S.  P. 
GERMAN-TOWN,  Dec.  13,  1897, 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

American  Literature  Defined,    ......         1 

American  and  Other  Literatures,  ....  3 

Periods  of  American  Literature.        .  .         7 


PART  I 

THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.     Cir.  1607-cir.  1765 
CHAPTER   I.     THE  COLONIES 

The  Colonies,      ........  13 

Virginia  and  the  South,          .....  16 

New  England 22 

Religion  in  New  England,      .....  .28 

The  Middle  Colonies,  .....  31 

The  Colonies  in  Literature,    ....  34 

CHAPTER  II.     LITERATURE  IN  THE  COLONIES 

The  Beginnings  of  Colonial  Literature,      ...  36 

The  Literature  of  the  South,  ....  37 

The  Literature  of  New  England 41 

The  Literature  of  the  Middle  Colonies,  ...  67 

Study  List,  the  Colonial  Period,          ....  72 


CONTENTS 


PART  II 

THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF   NATIONALITY.     Cir.    1765- 
cir.  1815 

CHAPTER  I.     THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  NATIONALITY 

Colonial  Diversity,          ......  75 

Progress  towards  Union,    ......  76 

Benjamin  Franklin,        ......  80 

Study  List,  Franklin, 92 

Revolutionary  Oratory  and  Politics,        ...  92 

Study  List,  Establishment  of  Nationality,          .        .  99 

CHAPTER  II.     POETRY  AND  ROMANCE 

The  Young  Nation  in  Literature,         ....  101 

Rise  of  Poetry, 102 

Nationality  in  Literature,  ......  105 

The  Beginning  of  Romance,            ....  108 

Study  List,  Early  Poetry  and  Romance,     .         .         .  112 

PART  III 
THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.     Cir.  1809-1897 

CHAPTER  I.     LITERATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  STATES. 
1809-1835. 

The  Growth  of  the  Republic,          ....  113 
Washington  Irving,    .         .         .         .         .         .         .115 

Study  List,  Irving, 129 

James  Fenimore  Cooper,    ......  130 

Study  List,  Cooper, 139 

William  Cullen  Bryant,      ......  140 

Study  List,  Bryant,         ......  147 

Minor  Writers  of  the  Middle  States,  .         .         .148 


CONTENTS  XI 

PAliK 

Halleck,  Drake,  and  Willis,        .   .         .         .  151-154 

Causes  of  tbe  Loss  of  New  England  Leadership,       .     156 


CHAPTER  II.     LITEKATUKE  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.    1835- 
1894. 

General  Survey, 160 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 164 

Study  List,  Emerson 177 

Henry  W.  Longfellow, 178 

Study  List,  Longfellow 189 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne,         .         .         .         .         .         .190 

Study  List,  Hawthorne, 199 

Other  Writers  of  the  New  England  (Jroup,        .          .  200 

James  Russell  Lowell,             .....  202 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 211 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier, 218 

The  Historians, 227 

The  Orators, 235 

General  Survey  of  the  Literature  of  the  New  Eng 
land  Group 239 

Additional  Study  Lists  and  References  for  New  Eng 
land  Writers, 244 


CHAPTER  III.    LITERATURE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Influence  of  Environment,          .....  248 

The  Writers, 253 

Kennedy,  Simms,  Ilayne,  etc.,  .         .         .      254-261 

Study  List,  Southern  Literature,  .  262 

Edgar  Allan  Poe,        .......  262 

Study  List,  Poe, -  274 

Sidney  Lanier, 275 

Study  List,  Lanier,         ,,,.,.  283 


Xll  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IV.     THE  LATER  WRITERS  OF  THE  MIDDLE 

STATES 

Literature  in  the  Different  Sections,  ....     284 
Minor  Writers,        ...  .  286,  287 

Bayard  Taylor, ;         .         .     287 

Walt  Whitman,      .      • 294 

Study  List,  Taylor  and  Whitman,      .         .         .         .302 

CHAPTER  V.     LITERATURE  SINCE  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

General  Survey  of  Literature  since  the  War,         .  305 

Literary  Supremacy  of  New  York,     ....  307 

Realistic  Fiction, 309 

Recent  Writers  of  New  England,       ....  314 

Literature  in  the  South,          .         .         .         .         .  317 

The  Literature  of  the  West, 322 

American  Humor,  .......  327 

Conclusion,  332 


APPENDIX 
TABLES   OF   LITERARY    PERIODS 

I.   Colonial  Era,  cir.  1607-cir.  1765 337 

II.  Beginnings  of  Nationality,  cir.  1765-cir.  1813,  .     347 

III.  Literature  of  the  Republic,  cir.  1809,    ...          352 


LIST   OF  PORTRAITS. 


PAGE 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN Frontispiece 

WASHINGTON  IRVING 115 

JAMES  FENIMOUE  COOPER 130 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT 140 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON          .  ....  164 

HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW          ....  178 

NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE 190 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 202 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES       ......  211 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER 218 

JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY  ......  233 

FRANCIS  PARKMAN 233 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  .  ...  262 


AN   INTRODUCTION  TO    AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  term  American  Literature,  although  firmly 
established  by  custom,  and  sufficiently  well  under 
stood,  is,  in  itself,  both  inexact  and  mis-  American 
leading.  If  we  were  not  acquainted  with  literature 
the  meaning  which  usage  has  given  to  the 
words,  we  should  naturally  understand  them  to  in 
clude  all  the  literature  produced  in  America,  whether 
before  or  after  its  discovery  by  Europeans.  But, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  the  term  American  literature  has 
received  by  ordinary  use  and  acceptation  a  far  more 
restricted  meaning.  It  does  not  embrace  the  entire 
literature  of  the  American  continent,  as  European 
literature  includes  that  of  all  Europe;  but  only  that  of 
a  definite  part  of  North  America — the  part  now  the 
United  States.  We  dwellers  in  these  United  States, 
holding,  as  we  do,  the  first  place  in  the  Western 
AVorld,  think  and  speak  of  ourselves  as  the  Americans, 
distinguishing  Canadians,  Brazilians,  or  Mexicans, — 
inhabitants  as  they  are  of  our  common  continent — by 
the  name  of  that  particular  country  to  which  they 
respectively  belong.  In  the  same  way,  by  American 
literature  we  mean  our  literature;  just  as  by  the 


2          INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

American  flag  we  mean  our  stars  and  stripes,  or  by  an 
American  citizen,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  mnst  remember  that  American 
literature  does  not  mean  merely  the  literature  of  the 
United  States,  for  it  is  far  older  than  our  national  life. 
It  means  simply  the  American  branch  of  English 
literature  set  by  colonization  in  fresh  earth;  it  means 
the  continuation  of  English  literature  within  the 
limits  of  what  has  become  the  United  States,  by 
people  English  in  their  speech,  English  to  a  consid 
erable  extent  by  inheritance,  and  English  in  the 
original  character  of  their  civilization.  Of  course  this 
literature  is  now,  and  has  been  for  more  than  a  cen 
tury,  the  product  of  a  politically  independent  nation, 
to  the  making  of  whose  people  almost  every  race  and 
country  has  now  contributed.  It  is  true  that  our 
intellectual  dependence  on  England,  at  first  almost 
unlimited,  has  gradually  lessened,  and  that  for  more 
than  a  century  our  Republic  has  been  moving  slowly 
towards  self-confidence  and  independence  in  literary 
methods  and  in  thought.  Doubtless,  as  our  civiliza 
tion  becomes  more  compact  and  mature,  as  our 
national  ideals  grow  clearer,  our  character  more  firmly 
set  and  defined,  this  divergence  between  American 
and  English  literature  will  increase,  and  our  coming 
writers  will  embody  with  growing  force  and  distinct 
ness  the  national  life  and  spirit  that  will  stir  around 
them.  But  while  we  may  expect  to  be  more  and 
more  truly  American  in  the  future,  we  must  remem 
ber  that  we  were  emphatically  English  in  the  past ; 
that  our  literature  in  its  origin  was  not  the  voice  of  a 


INTRODUCTION  3 

united  and  independent  nution,  but  the  disconnected 
and  stammering  utterance  of  a  straggling  line  of 
English  colonies,  fighting  for  a  foothold  along  the 
coast  of  an  inhospitable  land.  For  about  one  half  of 
its  entire  history, — extending  in  all  over  less  than 
three  centuries, — what  we  call  American  literature 
was  in  fact  nothing  more  than  one  of  the  colonial 
literatures  of  England.  Originally  the  provincial 
oil  shoot  of  the  greatest  literature  of  the  modern  world, 
American  literature  has  grown  up  under  the  shadow 
of  the  English,  slowly  modified  by  new  physical, 
social,  and  political  conditions.  As  truly  as  the 
American  flag  represents  our  political  separation  from 
England,  so  truly  does  our  American  literature,  in  its 
birth  and  growth,  exhibit  our  intellectual  depend 
ence  on  the  mother-land;  a  dependence  which  has 
been  weakened  by  the  development  of  our  national 
spirit,  but  which  even  yet,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
remains. 

It  is  clear  that,  by  reason  of  its  origin,  American 
literature  stands  in  a  different  position  from  that 
occupied  by  many  of  the  great  literatures  American 

of  the   world.     The  United   States   is   a    and  other 

,.        -i  A  literatures, 

young  nation,  but  we  Americans  are  not  a 

young  people ;  we  are  an  old  people,  for  our  ancestors 
brought  with  them  a  mature  civilization  when  they 
landed  on  this  new  soil  to  possess  and  subdue  it. 
One  of  the  most  truly  national  of  our  poets  has 
spoken  of  America  as  that 

"  Strange,  new  land  tliet  yit  wast  never  young." 


4  INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

The  literature  of  Greece  reflects  the  normal  progress 
of  a  people  from  the  primitive  life  of  a  young  nation 
to  a  state  of  high  civilization  and  maturity.  But 
unlike  Greece,  or  even  England,  America  has  never 
passed  through  all  these  natural  stages  of  a  people's 
growth,  and  our  literature  cannot  be  expected  to 
express  them.  In  certain  great  departments  of  litera 
ture,  in  certain  materials  for  the  creation  of  literature, 
America  must  of  necessity  be  comparatively  or  wholly 
wanting.  At  no  time  could  we  have  produced  the 
rude  chant,  or  primitive  epic,  because  when  our 
English  forefathers  first  settled  here  they  had  passed 
far  beyond  the  stage  of  national  development  which 
makes  such  creations  possible.  The  cultivated  Greek 
was  born  into  a  world  where  beautiful  myths  and 
legends  were  a  living  part  of  the  very  landscape :  our 
writers,  living  in  a  land  comparatively  free  from  all 
the  hallowed  and  inspiring  associations  of  the  past, 
can  reach  the  earlier  and  fresher  stages  of  a  race's 
mental  life  only  by  forcing  an  entrance  into  an 
aboriginal  world  in  which  we,  as  a  people,  have  no 
share.  If  we  would  think  ourselves  back  into  that 
dim  and  legendary  land  of  wonder  and  beauty  which 
great  nations  inhabit  in  their  childhood,  we  must  turn, 
as  Longfellow  does  in  Hiawatha,  to  the  stories  of  an 
alien  race,  or  we  must  cross  the  sea  and  enter  the 
national  nursery  of  the  Greek,  or  Celt,  or  English. 
We  must  therefore  think  of  our  literature,  not  only 
as  a  provincial  continuation  of  the  English,  but  as 
beginning  at  a  comparatively  late  period  in  the  life  of 
that  race  of  which  we  are  a  branch. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

But  while  we  may  fail  to  find  among  the  great  his 
toric  literatures  of  Europe  any  one  which  has  come 
into  existence  under  conditions  exactly  similar  to  our 
own,  there  exists  outside  of  Europe  a  True  place 
group  of  rising  literatures  among  which  of  American 
ours  properly  finds  a  place.  The  United 
States  is  by  no  means  the  only  country  in  which 
the  civilization  and  literature  of  England  are  being 
carried  forward  under  new  conditions.  For  cen 
turies,  and  especially  during  the  last  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  the  English  people  have  been  building 
outside  of  the  narrow  limits  of  their  island  a  great 
Empire  that  is  now  ninety-one  times  as  large  as  the 
mother-land.  The  English  flag  waves  over  tropic 
India  and  among  Canadian  forests;  in  Australasia,  in 
the  distant  Southern  ocean,  the  English  have  raised 
iip  a  rich,  progressive,  and  powerful  state;  in  half- 
mapped  Africa  is  the  wonderful  spectacle  of  this 
widening  English  rule.  It  is  not  English  rule  merely, 
it  is  England  herself,  her  Christian  civilization,  her 
institutions,  her  law,  her  language,  and  her  literature 
that  are  thus  reaching  out  to  the  ends  of  the  world. 
To-day  nearly  four  hundred  millions  of  people,  of 
widely  different  race,  language,  and  inheritance, 
acknowledge  her  supremacy,  while  to  more  than  one 
hundred  millions,  including  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  her  language  and  her  literature  are  native  and 
inherited  possessions.  Such  facts  mark  an  epoch,  not 
only  in  the  history  of  the  English  people,  but  in  the 
history  of  English  literature.  This  "  expansion  of 
England  "  means  also  the  expansion  of  English  litera- 


6          INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

hire;  it  means  that  the  English  genius,  which  has 
been  revealing  itself  through  literature  for  more  than 
twelve  hundred  years,  has  won  for  its  use  fresh 
materials  for  literary  art  by  coming  into  contact  with 
new  and  infinitely  varied  life.  Our  true  place  in 
literary  history  is  as  one  of  the  literatures  of  this 
greater  England.  We  have  been  brought  into  being 
by  the  same  great  historic  movement;  we  inherit  the 
same  civilization,  the  same  traditions,  the  same 
classics,  the  same  national  traits ;  we  are  sprung  from 
the  same  race,  and  the  speech  of  Shakespeare — Eng 
land's  poet  and  ours — is  on  our  lips. 

Nevertheless,  along  with  all  these  points  of  likeness 
between  our  American  literature  and  those  of  the 
English  colonies,  there  are  certain  marked  points  of 
difference.  Each  of  the  colonial  literatures  has 
already  a  spirit  and  character  of  its  own,  while  that 
of  the  United  States,  in  addition  to  all  other  causes 
of  divergence,  has  back  of  it  the  great  fact  of  our  in 
dependent  national  life  and  ideals. 

The  world  stands  but  at  the  beginning  of  this 
greater  English  literature.  The  creation  of  it  is  a 
world-wide  movement,  in  which  we  seem  destined  to 
bear  no  insignificant  a  part.  We  have  a  noble  inher 
itance  and  great  competitors;  and  if,  as  yet,  we  have 
done  but  little,  the  long  future  lies  before  us.  Only 
the  opening  chapters  in  the  story  of  American  litera 
ture  can  as  yet  be  told,  for  we  have  only  begun  to 
build  what  we  hope  will  be  one  of  the  great  literatures 
of  the  world. 

Having  gained  some  idea  of  the  relation  Avhich  our 


INTRODUCTION  7 

literature  bears  to  others  in  the  present  and  in  the 
past,  let  us  now  try  to  grasp  the  general  peri0)j8  Of 
course  of  our  literary  history,  and  the  main  American 
periods  into  which  it  naturally  divides 
itself.  The  literature  of  a  people  is  but  the  written 
expression  of  its  life.  Some  men  in  a  nation  express 
their  feelings,  ambitions,  or  ideas  chiefly  through 
their  actions;  they  are  statesmen,  soldiers,  inventors, 
merchants:  with  others,  this  inner  life  finds  its  most 
complete  expression  not  in  deeds  but  in  written  words; 
they  are  poets,  novelists,  historians,  or  philosophers. 
Both  the  men  of  deeds  and  the  men  of  words  have 
their  part  and  place,  and  both  classes  of  men  represent 
in  some  degree  the  hidden  central  life  of  the  com 
munity  to  which  they  belong.  Since  the  true  life  of 
a  people  is  revealed  to  us  partly  through  what  it  does 
and  partly  by  what  it  writes,  its  history  and  its  litera 
ture  are  inseparably  connected.  We  can  study  the 
growth  of  the  American  people  in  the  fortitude  and 
courage  of  its  early  settlers,  in  its  migration  westward 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  in  the  deeds  of  Franklin,  Wash 
ington,  or  Lincoln;  or  we  can  approach  it  from 
another  side,  and  read  its  story  in  the  words  of  the 
Puritan  preachers,  in  the  oratory  of  Patrick  Henry  or 
Daniel  Webster,  and  in  the  books  of  Emerson,  Haw 
thorne,  and  Lowell.  As  the  history  and  the  literature 
of  a  nation  spring  from  the  same  source,  the  study  of 
either  without  the  other  must  be  incomplete.  In  our 
study  of  American  literature,  therefore,  we  must  first 
appreciate  its  vital  connection  with  the  history  of  the 
American  people. 


8  INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

American  history  is  the  story  of  the  making  of  a 
united  and  independent  nation  out  of  a  number  of 
scattered  and  disconnected  colonies,  and  of  the  build 
ing  of  many  foreign  elements  into  the  fabric  of  a  great 
State.  It  tells  us  of  the  planting  and  growth  of  these 
colonies,  of  their  separate  life  and  interests,  of  their 
petty  jealousy  and  distrust;  it  shows  us  the  forces 
which  brought  them  nearer  together  and  drove  them 
to  concerted  action;  it  relates  their  united  resistance 
to  English  misrule ;  their  attempt  at  a  confederation  of 
semi-independent  States,  and  the  final  establishment 
of  a  federal  government.  Through  our  whole  history 
we  can  see  forces  at  work  which  tend  to  hold  back  or 
break  up  this  building  of  a  united  people.  Thousands 
of  miles  of  territory  have  been  added  to  the  original 
thirteen  States,  many  millions  of  foreigners  have 
brought  into  our  midst  a  strange  medley  of  races  and 
tongues,  one  great  section  of  the  country  has  risen  in 
arms  against  the  rest;  yet  in  spite  of  all  dangers  our 
steady  and  impressive  advance  towards  unity  has  gone 
forward,  and  the  substantial  integrity,  the  original 
character  of  the  nation  has  been  marvellously  pre 
served.  Thus  one  continuous  and  leading  motive  of 
our  national  history  is  that  progress  from  diversity 
towards  national  unity  which  finds  expression  in  the 
country's  motto. 

The  general  course  of  our  literary  history  but  fol 
lows  these  broad  features  in  the  history  of  our  country 
at  large,  so  that  the  main  periods  of  our  literary  and 
political  history  substantially  correspond.  Thus  the 
literature  naturally  falls  into  the  following  divisions, 


INTRODUCTION  9 

each  of  which  represents  likewise  a  stage  in  our  his 
torical  progress. 

I.  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD,  cir.  lG07-cir.  1765. 
II.  THE    ESTABLISHMENT  or    NATIONALITY,   cir. 

1765-cir.  1815. 

III.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  cir.  1809 
to  the  present  day. 

I.  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD-Cir.  1607-cir.  1765 

Our  literature  had  its  beginning  in  no  one  center  or 
community.  During  the  early  years  of  our  history 
the  Colonies  of  the  South,  of  the  Xorth,  and  of  the 
Middle  region  were  separated  from  each  other  by  the 
barriers  of  forest  and  wilderness,  and  by  their  under 
lying  difference  in  spirit  and  origin.  In  each  Colonial 
group,  therefore,  literature  had  an  independent  be 
ginning,  and,  for  a  considerable  period,  a  separate 
development.  The  crude  literary  efforts  of  the  several 
Colonies  bear  the  stamp  of  their  local  individuality. 
Our  Colonial  literature  is  consequently  a  literature  of 
sections,  each  of  which  must  be  studied  separately  to 
be  rightly  understood. 

II.  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NATIONALITY-Cir.  1765-cir.  1815 

When  these  isolated  Colonies  drew  together  and 
finally  became  compacted  into  a  nation,  their  litera 
ture  ceased  to  be  wholly  a  literature  of  sections,  and 
expressed  this  new  national  spirit.  The  forces  which 
drew  the  Colonies  together  politically  exerted  pre 
cisely  the  same  influence  on  their  intellectual  and 


10        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

literary  life.  In  the  oratory  which  echoed  the  com 
mon  antagonism  to  England,  in  the  songs  and  verses 
of  the  Revolution,  in  the  effort  to  manufacture  a 
national  literature  which  followed  the  establishment 
of  our  independence,  we  see  that  the  spirit  of  the 
whole  people  has  become  stronger,  for  the  time,  than 
the  spirit  of  any  section.  In  this  period,  therefore, 
our  literature  may  be  thought  of  as  passing  out  of  the 
purely  local  stage,  and  reaching,  at  least  at  times,  a 
national  note,  under  the  new  fervor  of  patriotism. 
This  may  further  be  regarded  as  a  transition-time 
between  the  old  Colonial  literature  and  that  compara 
tively  modern  and  more  national  literature  which 
begins  with  the  advent  of  AVashington.  Irving.  By 
1815,  or  the  conclusion  of  the  War  of  1812,  the 
country  may  be  thought  of  as  placed  on  a  firm  and 
permanently  independent  basis,  an  era  of  internal 
progress  and  prosperity  fairly  opening  out  before  it. 

III.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 
1809  to  the  present  day 

Although  this  period  covers  less  than  one  third  of 
our  entire  literary  history,  nearly  all  of  our  most  last 
ing  and  important  contributions  to  literature  have 
been  produced  within  its  comparatively  narrow  limits. 
It  has  been  a  time  of  rapid  national  growth,  during 
which  our  best  energies  have  been  concentrated  on 
the  development  of  our  vast  material  resources,  and 
on  the  task  of  building  up  and  governing  a  great 
nation.  Yet,  while  the  genius  of  America  has  thus 
manifested  itself  chiefly  in  active  and  directly  practical 


INTRODUCTION  11 

pursuits,  our  progress  in  literature  has  been  a  distinct, 
if  subordinate,  work  of  the  epoch.  The  territory 
held  by  the  republic  has  been  greatly  increased,  and 
our  literary  life  has  extended  over  an  ever-widen 
ing  area.  The  center  of  literary  production  has 
shifted  from  place  to  place  along  the  Eastern  Coast. 
Beginning  definitely  in  the  Middle  States  with  the 
Knickerbocker  school,  or  the  writers  that  surrounded 
or  followed  Irving  in  New  York  city,  the  onward 
movement  was  taken  up  about  1830-35  by  the  great 
writers  of  Xew  England,  at  Cambridge  and  at  Con 
cord.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  the  last  of  this  group, 
which  includes  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Longfellow, 
and  Lowell,  lias  but  lately  left  us,  and,  by  his  death, 
definitely  ended  what  has  been  so  far  our  most  mem 
orable  literary  movement.  Before  the  death  of 
Holmes,  however,  Xew  England  had  gradually  lost 
that  leadership  in  literature  which  she  had  held  dur 
ing  the  middle  years  of  our  century;  new  writers  have 
since  arisen  in  the  South  and  in  the  West,  and  we 
may  now  look  forward  to  a  still  fuller  and  wider  ex 
pression,  through  literature,  of  the  nation's  life. 


PART   I 

THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD 
Cir.  i6c>7-cir.  1765 


CHAPTER  I 
THE    COLONIES 

OUR  American  Republic  was  made  by  the  confed 
eration  of  English  Colonies,  joined  by  the  struggle 
for  independence,  and  welded  closer  together  by  the 
advantages  that  came  to  all  from  union.  Our  Ameri 
can  literature,  in  its  later,  or  national,  stage,  was  a 
continuation  of  the  literary  beginnings  in  these  several 
Colonies.  However  slight  the  value  of  this  Colonial 
literature  may  be,  regarded  purely  from  the  literary 
side,  when  we  reflect  that  these  early  writers  were 
preparing  the  way  for  the  greater  men  who  were  to 
come  after,  we  see  that  their  work  has  an  effect  and 
meaning  which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  pass  it  by. 
We  must  go  back  to  these  Colonies  and  their  litera 
ture  as  we  would  trace  a  river  to  its  source:  so  only 
can  we  appreciate  the  origin  of  much  that  we  find 
about  us  in  the  United  States  of  to-day. 

13 


14        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

With  the  single  exception  of  Georgia,  the  coloniza 
tion  of  North  America  by  the  English  was  the  work 
of  the  seventeenth  century.     To  know  what  these 
Colonies  were,   we  must  remember  what 

^e   .  England  herself  was  during  that  memo- 

Colomes. 

rable  epoch,  for  the  Colonies  were  substan 
tially  so  many  offshoots  of  England  set  in  a  new  soil. 
For  Englishmen  the  seveTiteenth  century  was  chiefly 
a  time  of  civil  conflict.  Without,  Spain  had  been 
humbled;  but  within,  monarchy  strove  with  the  rising 
spirit  of  liberty:  Cavaliers  with  Roundheads;  the 
Church  with  the  Puritan  spirit  of  dissent.  The 
land  was  a  house  divided  against  itself.  Two  Eng- 
lands  seem  struggling  for  being  within  the  limits  of 
one  little  island,  and  the  whole  surface  character  of 
the  nation  changes  as  one  or  the  other  of  the  two 
contending  parties  gains  control.  During  the  middle 
years  of  the  century,  or  from  about  1049  to  1060, 
England  is  a  land  at  least  nominally  republican  in 
government,  and  apparently  Puritan  in  religion. 
Its  prevailing  temper  seems  sober,  austere,  perhaps 
too  often  narrow  even  to  fanaticism;  it  is  sombre- 
hued,  pleasure-fearing,  restrained.  But  after  the 
restoration  of  the  monarchy  in  1660,  the  prevailing 
spirit  and  character  of  the  people  appear  to  be  sud 
denly  transformed.  On  every  side  are  light-hearted 
pleasure-seekers;  on  every  side  gayety  and  color,  dis 
soluteness  and  drunkenness.  The  nation  seems  to  be 
possessed  with  an  incurable  levity,  and  its  "  merry 
monarch  "  dies  with  a  cynical  jest  on  his  lips. 

Suppose  that  representatives  of  each  of  these  two 


THE    COLONIES  15 

Englands,  the  land  of  the  Puritan  and  the  land  of  the 
Cavalier,  had  been  taken  out  of  the  con-    Cavalier 
fusion   of  conflict,  and  placed  in  a  new    tan  in 
land  where  each  was  free  to  develop  un-    America, 
trammelled  by  the  influence  of  the  other.     In  such  a 
case  you  would  have  separate  continuations  of   two 
distinct  and  antagonistic  Englands.     This  actually 
took  place  in  the  new  land  of  America. 

The  first  permanent  English  settlement  in  this 
country  was  made  at  Jamestown,  near  Chesapeake 
Bay,  in  1007;  the  second  was  at  Plymouth,  on  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  in  1G20.  The  first  settlement  was  the 
beginning  of  Virginia,  the  most  influential  and  typical 
of  the  Colonies  of  the  South;  the  second  was  the 
beginning  of  Massachusetts,  which  came  to  hold 
among  the  New  England  Colonies  of  the  North  a 
correspondingly  influential  and  typical  place.  When 
we  examine  the  objects  and  composition  of  these  two 
typical  settlements,  we  find  that  in  a  broad,  general 
way  they  are  respectively  a  continuation  of  Cavalier 
and  of  Puritan  England.  Xew  England,  indeed,  is 
rigidly  and  exclusively  Puritan  in.  its  population  and 
spirit,  Avhile  Virginia  and  her  sister  colonies,  formed 
of  more  mixed  elements,  are  only  approximately 
Cavalier;  but,  speaking  broadly,  each  group  of  settle 
ments  maintains  those  rival  ideals  of  social  and  re 
ligious  life  which  during  the  seventeenth  century 
had  fought  for  supremacy  in  the  mother  land. 

The  chief  causes  of  this  diversity  of  character 
between  two  settlements  founded  almost  at  the  same 
time  are  the  widely  different  motives  which  prompted 


16        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

their  establishment,  and  the  influence  of  widely 
Virginia  different  natural  surroundings  upon  the 
and  the  Colonists  themselves.  In  general  terms, 
Virginia  was  settled  for  glory  or  for  gold, 
JS'ew  England  for  the  sake  of  religious  conviction.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  one  was  the  "  offspring  of 
economical  distress,  and  the  other  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny."  * 

The  scheme  of  colonizing  Virginia  by  the  London 
company  had  the  sanction  and  support  of  the  royal 
power.  Among  the  Colonists  were  adventurers,  rov 
ing  and  intrepid  soldiers  of  fortune,  gold-hunters, 
idlers,  and  "  poor  gentlemen,"  made  reckless  by  their 
necessities.  The  Virginia  enterprise  drew  such  men 
as  a  magnet  does  steel  filings,  for  the  Kew  World  of 
the  West  still  shone  in  the  popular  imagination  as  a 
kind  of  earthly  paradise,  where  gold  could  be  got 
without  labor.  These  wild  ideas  and  extravagant 
expectations  were  echoed  on  the  London  stage,  doubt 
less  with  a  touch  of  satirical  exaggeration,  for  the 
theatres  were  then  the  "  brief  chronicles  of  the  time." 
"  I  tell  thee,"  says  Seagull,  in  Marston's  Eastward 
Ho  !  (1605),  "  gold  is  more  plentiful  there  than  cop 
per  is  with  us;  and  for  as  much  red  copper  as  I  can 
bring  I'll  have  thrice  the  weight  in  gold."  And  he 
adds  to  many  other  attractions  of  the  new  land,  that 
"  there  we  shall  have  no  more  law  than  conscience, 
and  not  too  much  of  either. ' '  f  What  wonder  that 

*  Doyle's  English  Colonies  in  America  :  Virginia,  i.  101,  etc. 
^Eastward  Ho!     Act  III.  Sc.  3. 


THE    COLONIES  17 

the  discontented,  the  bankrupt,  and  the  enterprising 
looked  to  such  a  land  as  a  refuge,  a  place  to  repair 
ruined  fortunes,  and  to  risk  all  on  a  new  chance! 
What  wonder,  either,  that  the  statesmen  turned  to  it 
as  a  means  of  relieving  the  country  of  some  of  its 
superfluous  population ! 

Such,  then,  were  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
the  planting  of  Virginia.  But  while  the  first  colonists 
included  many  from  the  ranks  of  the  unfortunate, 
the  avaricious,  or  the  criminal,  they  were  later  ree'n- 
forced  by  many  representatives  of  the  best  English 
stock.  After  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  in 
England  many  of  the  Cavaliers  emigrated  thither; 
there,  too,  were  younger  sons  of  the  nobles,  and  men 
from  the  upper  and  middle  classes.  From  the  early 
days  of  Virginia  we  find  a  touch  of  the  pomp  and 
affluence  of  an  aristocratic  society,  beside  which  the 
pinched  and  rigid  life  of  ]Sew  England  seems  more 
than  ever  harsh  and  meagre.  Lord  Delaware,  one  of 
Virginia's  early  governors,  "  came  surrounded  by  the 
pomp  of  the  Old  World,  with  a  train  of  liveried  ser 
vants,  whose  gorgeous  dresses  must  have  had  a  strange 
effect  in  the  dark  Virginia  forests."  *  Moreover, 
many  local  conditions  helped  to  develop  a  society  of 
an  aristocratic  type.  The  richness  of  the  soil,  and 
the  great  importance  of  the  tobacco  crop,  tended  to 
make  the  South  a  region  of  huge  plantations,  while 
the  use  of  slave-labor,  -which  began  very  early,  further 
increased  the  wealth  and  almost  despotic  power  of 

*  Lodge's  English  Colonies  in  America,  p.  7. 


18        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

these  great  landed  proprietors.  Virginia,  during  the 
early  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  in  many 
respects  a  provincial  copy  of  the  rural  England  of 
that  time.  The  life  of  the  Virginia  country  gentle 
man  on  his  broad  acres  did  not  greatly  differ  from 
that  led  by  the  English  country  squire  of  the  time. 
The  clergy  of  the  Established  Church  had  the  low 
moral  tone  and  lack  of  spirituality  which  in  the 
reigns  of  Anne  and  the  early  Georges  too  often  dis 
graced  their  English  brethren.  Bui  life  in  Virginia 
was  even  more  lonely  and  narrowing  than  in  the 
country  districts  of  contemporary  England.  There 
was  practically  no  town  life,  and  the  wretched  state 
of  the  roads  was  an  obstacle  to  a  social  intercourse 
such  as  was  quickening  and  developing  the  mental  life 
of  Colonial  Xew  England.  In  a  community  so  widely 
settled,  with  no  great  centers  of  population,  the 
establishment  of  schools  was  necessarily  difficult.  The 
sons  of  the  wealthy  were  taught  at  home,  and  perhaps 
completed  their  education  in  England,  or  in  the  bet 
ter-equipped  Colonies  of  the  Xorth ;  but  among  the 
masses  illiteracy  was  general.  We  find  no  trace  of 
that  sympathy  with  popular  education  which  from 
the  first  was  characteristic  of  the  more  northern 
Colonies,  but  rather  signs  of  a  selfish  and  aristocratic 
prejudice  against  it.  In  1671  the  royalist  governor, 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  wrote  concerning  the  condition 
of  Virginia:  "  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools, 
nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  these 
hundred  years;  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience 
and  heresy,  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has 


THE   COLONIES  19 

divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  govern 
ment.  God  keep  us  from  both."  This  mediaeval 
policy  of  keeping  the  people  ignorant  in  order  to 
repress  freedom  of  thought,  and  to  render  the  masses 
subservient  to  rule,  "was  unfortunately  not  confined  to 
Berkeley.  Throughout  the  entire  Colonial  period  the 
South  was  without  any  provision  for  general  educa 
tion.*  Even  in  higher  education,  reserved  of  neces 
sity  for  the  sons  of  the  wealthier  classes,  the  South 
was  conspicuously  backward. f  The  printing-press, 
which  stands  beside  the  public  school  as  one  of  the 
great  agencies  of  our  civilization,  was  also  introduced 
late,  and,  even  when  obtained,  was  subjected  to  a 
supervision  stifling  to  intellectual  growth  and  freedom 
of  thought.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  press  in 
Virginia  before  1681,  more  than  seventy  years  after 
the  settlement,  and  a  few  years  later  the  governor 
was  instructed  by  the  authorities  in  England  "  to 
allow  no  person  to  use  a  printing-press  on  any  occasion 
whatsoever."  Yet  forty  years  before  this  the  great 
Puritan  John  Milton  had  put  forth,  in  his  Areopa- 
yitica,  his  daring  claim  for  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  England  had  gained  that  freedom  for  herself 

*  "  Tliere  is  no  indication  in  the  statutes  of  any  desire  to 
provide  education,  and  no  system  of  public  schools  was  even 
attempted  before  1776." — Lodge,  English  Colonies  in  America, 
p.  74. 

f  A  college  was  indeed  founded  in  1692,  at  Williamsburg, 
then  the  capital  of  Virginia,  called  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary;  but  during  its  early  history  it  was  rather  a  boys'  board 
ing-school  than  a  college  in  any  proper  sense,  as  nothing  was 
taught  beyond  the  rudiments. 


20        INTRODUCTION"   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

almost  at  the  time  she  denied  it  to  her  Colony.  The 
entire  blame  for  these  unfortunate  conditions  cannot 
fairly  be  laid  to  the  desire  of  the  English  Government 
to  stifle  the  free  spirit  of  the  people;  it  is  partly 
attributable  to  an  aristocratic  and  autocratic  spirit 
among  the  ruling  classes  in  Virginia.  Virginia  being 
in  many  ways  a  continuation  of  monarchical  and 
Cavalier  rather  than  of  republican  or  Puritan  Eng 
land,  there  was  not  that  united  protest  against  an 
undue  authority  which  would  have  made  its  exercise 
difficult  if  not  impossible.  So  that  a  recent  writer 
even  goes  so  far  as  to  declare  that  "  thought  was  not 
free  in  Virginia,  religion  was  not  free  in  Virginia,  and 
this  by  the  explicit  and  reiterated  choice  of  the 
people  of  Virginia."  * 

After  reviewing  such  facts,  we  must  acknowledge 
that  many  conditions  of  life  in  the  Colonial  South 
were  distinctly  unfavorable  to  any  great  achievement 
in  literature.  As  a  rule,  great  writers  have  been 
dwellers  in  cities ;  the  best  literature  is  apt  to  be  born 
amid  the  thronging  centers  of  human  competition  and 
activity,  where  life  moves  swiftly  and  with  a  dramatic 
energy  and  complexity,  where  thought  is  called  forth 
by  the  incessant  pressure  of  experience,  and  mind  is 
quickened  by  constant  contact  with  mind.  Life  in 
the  South  was  agricultural,  isolated ;  the  town,  the 
focus  of  mental  activity,  did  not  exist.  Indeed  to  this 
day  it  has  felt  the  want  of  a  literary  center,  compar 
able  to  Philadelphia  in  the  early  years  of  this  century, 

*  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  90. 


THE   COLONIES  21 

and  to  Boston,  New  York,  and  Chicago  at  a  later 
period.  The  ideal  of  the  upper  classes  was  rather  that 
of  the  great  nohle  than  of  the  student  or  man  of 
letters.  Besides  all  this,  the  deliciously  mild  and 
somewhat  enervating  climate,  together  with  the  lux 
uriant  richness  of  the  soil,  encouraged  a  life  of  in 
dolence.  While  the  intense  and  wiry  New  Englander 
made  himself  lean  over  the  doctrines  of  free  will  and 
election,  or,  in  the  frigid  atmosphere  of  his  stoveless 
meeting-house,  listened  to  long  sermons  on  the  future 
torments  of  the  wicked,  the  comfortable  Virginian 
laid  wagers  on  cock-fights,  or  celebrated  the  victories 
of  the  race-track. 

Yet,  while  we  are  compelled  to  admit  her  short 
comings,  it  is  plain  that  Virginia  had  many  of  the 
elements  of  a  great  State.  Her  faults  The  g^t. 
were  mainly  those  of  the  dominant  class  in  ness  of  Vir- 
that  early-eighteenth-century  England  of  ' 
which  she  was  the  colonial  representative.  On  the 
other  hand,  life  in  Virginia  was  sturdy,  healthy, 
hospitable,  and  by  no  means  lacking  in  sterling  and 
manly  virtues.  The  men  were  brave  and  chivalric, 
the  women  charming  and  devoted ;  home-life  beauti 
ful,  and  family  affection  strong.  If  the  South  could 
not  give  us  many  writers  of  books,  it  gave  us  leaders 
of  men,  who  proved  the  magnificent  qualities  of  the 
race  in  moments  of  national  peril.  When  the  country 
stood  on  the  brink  of  the  Revolutionary  War  it  was 
the  Virginia  Assembly,  under  Patrick  Henry's  elo 
quence,  that  led  the  way  in  which  Massachusetts  fol 
lowed;  it  was  Richard  Henry  Lee,  a  Virginian,  who 


22       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

introduced  into  Congress  the  resolution  declaring  the 
Colonies  independent;  above  all,  it  was  Virginia  who 
gave  us  Washington  and  Marshall.  Yet  while  the 
South  was  thus  foremost  in  action,  great  in  the  halls 
of  debate,  on  the  battle-field,  or  in  the  court  of  jus 
tice,  we  must  look  to  New  England,  rather  than  to 
Virginia,  for  the  source  of  our  literary  and  intellectual 
life.  The  great  Colonies  of  the  South  and  of  the 
North  were  to  develop  on  different  lines,  but  it  was 
the  ideals  of  the  North  that  were  to  have  the  largest 
share  in  the  making  of  the  whole  nation,  and  that, 
at  least  in  a  modified  form,  were  destined  to  prevail. 
In  studying  the  character  and  history  of  New 
England  we  are  impressed  first  of  all  with  the 
nature  of  the  motive  that  prompted  its  settlement, 
New  for  in  this  motive  lies  both  the  cause 

England.  and  the  explanation  of  much  that  is 
peculiar  in  its  subsequent  life  and  literature.  As  a 
rule,  the  founding  of  a  colony  is  the  work  of  a 
motley  crowd  of  emigrants  and  adventurers, — an 
ill-assorted  company  of  men  representing  almost  every 
shade  of  social  condition,  of  religion,  politics,  and 
moral  character.  Such,  as  we  have  seen,  were  the 
elements  which  the  hope  of  gain  first  drew  to  the 
rich  land  of  Virginia.  But  the  single  and  unworldly 
purpose  which  dictated  the  making  of  New  England 
excluded  from  the  Colony  all  but  the  few  resolute 
spirits  who  shared  in  that  purpose,  and  who  were  of  a 
temper  strong  enough  to  suffer  for  it.  It  brought 
together  men  of  one  mind  and  of  one  faith,  and  the 
State  which  they  created  was  a  wonderfully  perfect 


THE   COLONIES  23 

embodiment  of  their  ideas.  "  We  came  hither," 
wrote  one  of  their  clergymen  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Colony, — "  we  came  hither  because  we  would  have  our 
posterity  settled  under  the  pure  and  full  dispensation 
of  the  Gospel,  defended  by  rulers  that  should  be  of 
ourselves."  It  was  this  motive  which  gave  to  New 
England  a  unity  which  the  other  Colonies,  with  their 
mixed  elements,  did  not  possess.  Not  only  was  New 
England,  unlike  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  many 
of  the  other  Colonies,  settled  almost  entirely  by  men 
of  purely  English  stock,  but  her  early  settlers  were 
drawn  exclusively  from  those  progressive,  protesting, 
and  liberty-loving  elements  in  England  that  in  the 
critical  struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  saved  the 
nation  from  tyranny  and  misrule.  It  was  the  Puritan 
who,  almost  at  the  same  time,  preserved  and  enlarged 
the  ancient  liberties  of  England  and  carried  liberty 
over  seas  to  plant  it  in  a  new  world. 

These  Puritan  builders  of  New  England  have  left 
so  deep  a  stamp,  not  only  on  that  great  section  that 
they  founded,  but  on  our  greatest  litera-  fhe 
ture  and  on  the  history  of  our  whole  Puritans, 
nation,  that  we  must  try  to  do  full  justice  to  their 
character  and  their  ideas.  The  high  average  of  in 
telligence  and  character  among  the  New  England 
colonists  is  one  of  the  first  facts  to  impress  us.  A 
great  proportion  of  them  came  from  Lincolnshire  and 
the  neighboring  counties,  then  the  great  stronghold,  of 
Puritanism.  They  were  mostly  earnest,  thoughtful, 
God-fearing  men,  of  the  middle  and  yeoman  class. 
The  idle,  profligate,  and  disorderly  elements  which 


24       INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

entered  into  the  making  of  Virginia  had  absolutely 
no  place  among  them.  Some  of  them  belonged  to  the 
ancient  landed  gentry — men  of  the  class  of  John 
Ilampden  or  Oliver  Cromwell,  representing  the 
soundest  and  finest  English  stock;*  many  of  these 
were  graduates  of  Cambridge,  that  great  university 
even  then  Puritan  in  its  sympathies.  Prof.  Tyler 
says  that  between  1030  and  1690  there  were  probably 
"  as  many  graduates  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  in 
New  England  as  could  be  found  in  any  population  of 
similar  size  in  the  mother-country."  f  But  it  is  not 
merely  that  they  were  scholarly  men;  history  shows 
them  to  have  been  men  of  endurance  and  of  courage. 
Their  grand  purpose  of  building  in  the  wilderness  a 
State  which  should  rest  on  the  foundations  of  religion 
and  morality  was  one  likely  to  attract  only  the  higher 
and  stanch er  characters.  No  wonder  that  one  of 
their  early  preachers  declared  that  "  God  sifted  a 
whole  nation  that  he  might  send  choice  grain  over 
into  this  wilderness." 

The  character  and  scholarship  of  its  founders  made 
New  England  the  most  intellectual  of  all  the  Colonies ; 
it  left  a  lasting  impress,  not  on  New  England  only, 
but  on  many  a  future  State  in  the  then  unexplored 
West,  and  on  the  life  and  thought  of  the  mighty 
nation  that  was  to  be.  It  was  in  New  England  that 
popular  education,  the  only  foundation  on  which  a 

*  "  It  is  no  unusual  thing  for  a  Massachusetts  family  to  trace 
its  pedigree  to  a  lord  of  the  manor  in  the  thirteenth  or  four 
teenth  century." — Fiske's  American  Political  Ideas,  p.  29. 

\  Tyler's  American  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  98. 


THE   COLONIES  '25 

republic  such  as  ours  can  safely  rest,  was  begun. 
After  the  Puritans  had  provided  for  the  bare  necessi 
ties  of  life,  after  they  had  built  meeting-houses  and 
"  settled  the  civil  government,"  "  one  of  the  next 
things  "  they  "  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to 
advance  learning  and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity. ' '  * 
As  early  as  1642  parents  were  required  to  furnish 
their  children  Avith  at  least  elementary  instruction, 
and  four  years  later  every  Colony  except  Rhode  Isl 
and  had  made  education  compulsory.  Certain  auto 
cratic  spirits  in  Virginia  sought  to  rest  the  govern 
ment  on  the  servile  ignorance  of  the  masses;  the 
democratic  spirit  of  New  England  found  in  popu 
lar  enlightenment  the  true  basis  of  a  self-governed 
State.  Even  before  the  establishment  of  popular 
schools  provision  had  been  made  for  the  higher  edu 
cation.  Harvard  College  was  founded  in  1636,  only 
sixteen  years  after  the  landing  of  the  Mayflower; 
not,  like  the  college  of  William  and  Mary,  through 
the  exertions  of  one  man,  but  by  the  official  action 
of  the  authorities.  The  beginning  of  this  oldest 
of  our  colleges,  built  by  the  Puritan  out  of  his 
penury,  and  set  down  in  the  clearing  of  a  wilderness 
which  was  not  yet  wrested  from  the  Indian  and 
the  wild  beast,  is  an  extraordinary  proof  of  foresight 
and  of  loftiness  of  aim.  It  showed  a  trust  in  the 
future  which  time  has  justified.  The  college  thus 
founded  became  a  power  in  the  higher  life  of  the  little 

*  New  England's  First  Fruits.    Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  i., 
1st  series,  242. 


26        INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

cluster  of  New  England  Colonies,  and,  in  later  years, 
in  that  of  the  whole  nation.  It  has  brought  forth 
great  men,  and  helped  to  make  the  little  village  of 
Newtown, — rechristened  Cambridge  in  memory  of  the 
great  university,  dear  to  the  Puritan  heart, — a  center 
of  the  greatest  literary  movement  the  country  has  yet 
seen.  * 

Apart  from  this  care  for  education,  we  find  many 
stray  indications  of  this  intellectual  quality  of  the 
Puritan  mind.  New  England  produced  the  first 
almanac  printed  in  the  Colonies  (1639) ;  a  humble 
form  of  literature,  indeed,  yet  one  which  in  the 
hands  of  Benjamin  Franklin  was  to  become  a  charac 
teristic  and  important  medium  of  popular  instruction. 
New  England  gave  us  the  first  English  book  printed 
in  North  America — the  famous  Bay  Psalm  Book  of 
Weld  and  Eliot  (1640);  she  gave  us,  too,  in  The 
Boston  Neivs  Letter  (begun  1704),  the  first,  and  for 
fifteen  years  the  only,  newspaper  printed  within  the 
limits  of  the  present  United  States. 

Not  only  did  the  Puritans  bring  with  them  a 
decidedly  intellectual  bent;  they  found  at  least  some 
of  the  conditions  of  New  England  life  distinctly 
favorable  to  mental  development.  The  keen,  stimu 
lating  atmosphere  quickened  mind  and  body  with  a 
restless  and  nervous  energy,  changing  the  ruddy, 

*  "  For  place  they  fix  their  eye  upon  New-town,  which,  to  tell 
their  Posterity  whence  they  carne,  is  now  named  Cambridge. " — 
Wonder -'working  Providence  ofZion's  Saviour  in  Neic  England, 
by  Capt.  Edward  Johnson,  1654.  (Stedman  and  Hutchinson's 
Library  of  American  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  326.) 


THE   COLONIES  27 

bulky  Englishman  into  the  alert,  wiry,  qnicker-witted 
Yankee.  There  was  here  no  luxurious  abundance, 
such  as  that  which  in  the  South  fostered  a  life  of  in 
dolence.  An  early  New  England  writer  says  truly 
that  their  company  of  the  elect  had  not  been  led  into 
a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  but  into  a  wilder 
ness,  where  bare  living  could  only  be  wrung  from 
the  stony  earth  by  toil.  There  was  nothing  to 
encourage  an  almost  purely  agricultural  society,  such 
as  that  of  Virginia;  men  must  live  by  their  brains, 
and  so  we  note  the  early  beginning  of  manufactur 
ing  and  other  industries  at  a  time  when  they  were 
unknown  in  the  fertile  Colonies  of  the  South. 
Though  dwelling  in  a  country  of  splendid  forests,  the 
Virginian  imported  his  chairs,  tables,  boxes,  even  his 
wooden  bowls,  from  England ;  *  in  the  North  every 
man  was  a  mechanic,  and  his  necessity  was  the  mother 
of  Yankee  ingenuity.  There  was  more  social  inter 
course  in  New  England  than  in  the  huge  and  com 
paratively  isolated  plantations  of  the  South.  Town 
life  was  pronounced  from  the  first,  and  half  a  cen 
tury  after  the  settlement  at  Plymouth  there  were 
fifty  towns  in  a  population  of  about  eight  thousand. 
The  country  was  early  divided  into  small  districts,  or 
townships,  governed  by  the  town-meeting,  at  which 
every  male  resident  was  expected  to  be  present.  By 
this  system  of  free  discussion  the  men  of  New  Eng 
land  were  not  only  training  themselves  in  democratic 
methods  of  government,  but  they  were  developing 

*See  Beverly  on  tlie  Present  State  of  Virginia,  p.  58. 


28       INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

their  power  to  think,  and  to  clothe  their  thoughts  in 
effective  words.  Thus  climate  combined  with  certain 
political  and  social  conditions  to  quicken  and  develop 
the  New  England  mind. 

But  while  the  tone  of  New  England  was  conspicu 
ously  intellectual,  and  while  conditions  favorable  to 
the  encouragement  of  the  intellect  were  by 
no  means  lacking,  the  whole  mental  life 
was  cramped  by  an  almost  complete  devotion  to 
questions  of  theology  and  points  of  doctrine.  An 
offence  against  their  accepted  religious  system  was  an 
offence  against  the  State,  for  the  Church  and  the  State 
were  one.  The  ministers  were  consequently  not  mere 
spiritual  guides,  but  leaders  in  temporal  affairs;  no 
man  was  permitted  to  vote  unless  he  were  a  member 
of  one  of  the  congregations.  These  founders  of  a  new 
England  had  got  into  a  corner  of  the  world,  and 
"  with  immense  toyle  and  charge  made  a  wilderness 
habitable,"  that  they  might  live  unmolested  in  the 
practice  of  their  faith,  and  not  unnaturally  they 
refused  to  admit  those  who  differed  from  them  in  that 
faith.  They  were  as  intolerant  as  they  were  earnest 
and  sincere,  for  intolerance  was  the  bulwark  of  their 
whole  system  of  government.  The  higher  education, 
designed  almost  exclusively  to  prepare  young  men  for 
the  ministry,  that  "  there  might  be  some  comfortable 
supply  and  succession,"  was  narrowed  by  a  too  pre 
dominantly  theological  tone.  Hence,  as  Matthew 
Arnold  has  said,  "  Harvard  was  calculated  in  its  early 
days  to  produce  learned  theologians  rather  than  men 
of  letters."  Thus,  with  an  inspiring  if  mistaken 


THE    COLONIES  29 

thoroughness  and  vigor,  the  Puritan  undertook  to  sub 
ject  life  and  thought  in  IS'ew  England  to  a  minute 
supervision  and  an  iron  rule;  society  was  under  a  code 
which  suppressed  extravagance,  or  what  was  deemed 
affectation,  in  dress,  and  which  discouraged  even 
innocent  amusements.  One  Thomas  Parker,  a  min 
ister  highly  thought  of  for  his  learning  and  goodness, 
came  down  from  his  study  to  reprove  some  of  his 
relatives  who  were  laughing  "very  freely"  in  the 
room  below.  "  Cousins,"  he  said,  "  I  wonder  you  can 
be  so  merry,  unless  you  are  sure  of  your  salvation." 
The  authorities  of  Plymouth  threatened  to  banish  a 
young  servant-girl  as  a  "  common  vagabond  "  because 
she  had  smiled  in  church.  In  such  a  society  political 
freedom  was  curiously  linked  to  religious  despotism. 
Moreover,  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  New  World 
tended  to  exaggerate  certain  defects  of  the  Puritan 
character.  The  especial  temptation  of  the  Puritan 
was  to  carry  his  virtues  to  an  excess,  and,  by  the 
itndue  development  of  his  strong  and  uncompromising 
qualities,  become  self-righteous,  fanatical,  unchari 
table,  and  morbid.  English  Puritans  of  the  highest 
type,  like  John  Ilampden  and  the  accomplished 
Colonel  Ilutchinson,  a  lover  of  music  and  poetry,  pre 
served  a  juster  balance  of  nature,  and  succeeded  in 
uniting  strength,  rectitude,  and  a  true  religious  feel 
ing  with  a  most  winning  grace  and  charm.  But  a 
rigorous  climate,  the  hardness,  solitude,  and  perils  of 
life  in  the  new  land,  its  bitter  experiences  of  hunger, 

*  Mather's  Magnalia,  vol.  i.  p.  439. 


30        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

death,  and  pestilence,  were  calculated  to  intensify 
rather  than  to  soften  the  grimmer  and  sterner  Puritan 
traits.  These  harsh  experiences  called  out  fortitude 
and  determination,  and  left  but  little  room  for  joy- 
ousness  or  ease.  New  generations,  with  no  memories 
of  the  charm  and  beauty  of  England,  grew  up  to 
replace  the  old ;  the  mother  land  seemed  far  off.  The 
monotony  of  life  depressed  them,  and  the  shadows 
deepened.  Held  in  the  iron  pressure  of  such  sur 
roundings,  the  powerful  mind  of  the  New  Englaiider, 
like  that  of  some  mediaeval  schoolman,  became 
narrowed  by  being  too  inflexibly  confined  to  one  set  of 
ideas,  and,  intrenched  in  his  own  opinions,  he  drove 
from  him  those  whose  religious  views  were  different 
from  his  own.  Such  conditions  were  highly  unfavor 
able  to  the  production  of  a  true  literature,  or  indeed 
of  any  form  of  art.  English  Puritanism  gave  the 
world  one  supremely  great  poet;  but  Milton  passed 
his  early  years  in  the  evening  of  a  beauty-loving  time 
— a  time  of  mask  and  antique  pageantry,  when  the 
sounds  of  feast  and  jollity  yet  lingered  in  the  air. 
And  so  Milton  added  to  the  inexorable  Puritan  con 
science  and  an  uncompromising  seriousness  of  aim 
the  artist's  love  of  beauty,  color,  grace,  and  joy, — a 
love  which  was  partly  an  inheritance  from  the 
gorgeous  Elizabethan  age  then  passing  away.  Beauty, 
gladness,  and  the  fulness  of  a  comprehensive  human 
sympathy — without  these  things  art  and  literature  are 
starved.  So  while  in  Old  England  Puritan  literature 
was  cut  off  by  the  restoration  of  Cliarles  II.,  in 
Colonial  New  England  it  lived  indeed,  but  lived 


THE   COLONIES  31 

pinched  and  repressed  by  the  lack  of  the  generous  and 
life-giving  conditions  without  which  it  is  hard  for  art 
to  bloom. 

Lowell  has  said  that  Massachusetts  and  Virginia 
"  have  been  the  two  great  distribnting  centres  of  the 
English  race  on  this  continent."*  Cer 
tainly  they  are  the  two  most  conspicuous  T£e  Mfddle 
representatives  of  two  important  and  con 
trasted  elements  which,  with  others  too  often  unduly 
slighted,  have  gone  to  make  up  the  nation.  But 
these  other  elements  cannot  be  altogether  passed  over. 
Between  the  territories  of  the  English  Cavalier  and 
the  English  Puritan  stretched  a  line  of  settlements  by 
no  means  wholly  English,  which  in  character  as  in 
position  were  midway  between  these  two  extremes. 
During  the  early  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
while  the  English  were  establishing  themselves  in  the 
South  and  North,  this  rich  belt  of  middle  country 
was  being  taken  up  by  other  nations.  Holland,  true 
to  the  Dutch  instinct  for  commerce,  and  quick  to 
perceive  the  opportunities  for  trade  held  out  by  the 
Western  world,  established  trading-posts  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson  and  further  up  the  river,  thus  gaining 
possession  of  the  finest  harbor  on  the  Eastern  coast. 
A  Dutch  West  India  company  was  established  (1G21) 
and  explorations  and  settlements  were  made  on  Dela 
ware  Bay  and  farther  inland.  By  1G37  the  Dutch 
had  a  competitor  in  the  Swedes,  who  started  rival 

*  New  England  Two  Centuries  Ago.     Prose  Works,  vol.  ii. 
p.  14,  complete  edition. 


32        INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

trading  settlements,  but  gave  way  to  the  Dutch  about 
twenty  years  later  (1655).  Finally,  when  a  war  broke 
out  in  Europe  between  England  and  Holland,  the 
whole  middle  district  passed  at  length  into  the  hands 
of  the  English.  Three  distinct  though  kindred  races 
had  thus  struggled  for  this  middle  region,  and 
although  it  became  English  at  last,  foreign  elements 
remained  in  its  population  which  were  not  without 
lasting  effects  upon  its  character.  We  are  better  able 
to  understand  the  character  of  New  York  city,  and 
appreciate  why  it  had  less  literary  and  intellectual  in 
fluence  in  early  times  than  Boston  or  Philadelphia,  if 
we  remember  that  it  was  founded  as  a  purely  business 
enterprise  by  a  nation  of  traders,  and  that  its  origin, 
its  wealth  and  its  commercial  advantages,  have  com 
bined  to  give  it  an  essentially  mercantile  spirit. 

The  origin  and  character  of  Pennsylvania  was 
widely  different.  While  there  were  early  Dutch  and 
Swedish  settlements  within  the  domain  afterwards 
granted  to  Penn  by  Charles  II.,  the  real  beginning  of 
Pennsylvania  was  distinctly  English.  New  York  was 
the  child  of  a  Dutch  trading  company;  Pennsylvania 
the  offspring  of  a  desire  to  institute  a  better  social  and 
religious  order,  a  purpose  less  selfish  and  more  liberal 
than  that  which  actuated  the  Puritans  themselves. 
William  Penn,  one  of  the  noblest  characters  in  the 
annals  of  American  colonization,  was  a  man  of  good 
birth  and  education,  who  had  suffered  much  for  his 
courage  and  independence  in  doing  what  he  believed 
to  be  right.  The  founding  of  Pennsylvania  was  in 
his  eyes  a  "  holy  experiment. "  It  was  not  reared, 


THE    COLONIES  33 

like  the  Colonies  of  New  England,  on  a  foundation  of 
narrow  exclusiveness ;  it  was  to  be  a  refuge  for  the 
persecuted  and  oppressed  of  every  sect.  The  colony 
rested  not  merely  on  a  political  but  on  a  religious 
liberty,  and  so  it  welcomed  Germans,  Scotch,  Irish, 
Welsh,  and  Huguenots,  emigrants  of  many  nations, 
often  attached  to  strange  and  curious  religious  sects. 
If  Massachusetts  pointed  the  way  in  popular  educa 
tion,  Pennsylvania  and  not  New  England  stands  as 
the  pattern  of  the  Republic  of  the  future,  that, 
uniting  civil  and  religious  liberty,  was  to  open  her 
arms  to  mankind.  The  Puritan  built  for  those  of  his 
own  faith  alone:  to  him  even  political  rights  were 
determined  by  religious  belief.  Penn,  with  a  wonder 
ful  humanity  and  an  astonishing  faith,  founded  "  a 
free  colony  for  all  mankind." 

The  people  in  Pennsylvania  were  accordingly  sepa 
rated  by  innumerable  differences  in  race,  language, 
and  creed.  Some  of  the  sects  could  boast  Educational 

of  learned  men,  but  on  the  whole  this   and  literary 

.  .  conditions 

diversity  was  unfavorable  to  intellectual  in  Pennsyl- 

progress.  There  was  but  little  general  yania- 
culture,  yet  we  find  Philadelphia  making  an  early 
provision  for  education,  and  prominent  from  the 
first  in  science  and  scholarship.  Like  the  Puritans, 
the  Quakers  had  but  little  sympathy  with  literature 
or  art  from  the  purely  aesthetic  side,  but  they  showed 
a  marked  fondness  for  natural  science,  and  intellectual 
liberty  was  the  very  principle  of  their  religion. 
A  school  was  opened  in  Philadelphia  in  1683,  only 
a  year  after  Penii's  landing,  and  six  years  later  a 


34        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

public  school  was  established  in  which  the  classics 
were  taught.  A  printing-press  was  set  up  there  in 
1686,  only  four  years  after  the  founding  of  the 
city,  and  an  almanac  published  by  the  Philadelphia 
printer,  William  Bradford,  in  the  year  following. 
The  settlers  showed  themselves  even  more  prompt 
than  the  people  of  Xew  England  in  providing  for  the 
things  of  the  mind,  and  we  can  readily  believe  that 
"  the  early  emigrants  included  in  their  numbers  men 
of  good  education  and  high  endowments."  In  Xew 
England,  however,  education  was  probably  more 
widely  spread  over  the  country  districts,  while  in 
Pennsylvania  it  was  largely  confined  to  Philadelphia 
itself. 

When  we  pass  in  imagination  through  this  line  of 
straggling  settlements  along  the  Eastern  edge  of  this 
The  Colo-  unknown  wilderness,  we  cannot  but  see 
nies  in  lit-  that,  by  the  very  nature  of  the  situation, 
any  great  and  immediate  success  in  litera 
ture  was  for  them  all  but  impossible.  Xot  only  had 
they  the  enormous  labor  of  subduing  a  continent,  of 
combating  Indians,  of  organizing  governments,  a 
work  which  would  absorb  the  best  energies  and  tax 
tbe  practical  resources  of  the  strongest  race,  but  they 
had  further  to  overcome  obstacles  perhaps  even  more 
formidable  in  their  lack  of  educational  and  literary 
facilities,  in  their  remoteness  from  the  great  centres 
of  culture,  and  in  their  very  cast  of  mind.  The 
South  was  indolent  and  illiterate,  and  many  among 
the  better  classes  inclined  to  despise  literature  as  a 
profession ;  Xe\v  England  was  intellectual  but  narrow, 


THE    COLO  NIKS  35 

and  given  over  too  exclusively  to  matters  of  theology; 
Xe\v  York  was  mercantile,  and  its  first  inhabitants 
were  men  of  a  heavy  and  phlegmatic  race  Avhich  has 
made  no  great  contribution  to  the  world's  literature; 
Pennsylvania  as  a  State  was  behind  Xew  England  in 
education,  and  while  Philadelphia  was,  from  the  first, 
a  centre  of  education  and  culture,  its  bent  seemed 
rather  scientific  than  purely  literary.  The  Quaker 
and  the  Puritan  were  probably  the  two  most  powerful 
influences  back  of  our  educational  and  intellectual  life 
in  the  Colonial  times,  and,  while  both  were  excellent, 
both  were  distinctly  nnliterary  influences.  Emotion 
and  color,  the  breath  of  poetry  and  art,  were  alike 
distasteful  to  the  Quaker,  while  to  the  XCAV  England 
Puritan,  in  his  ':  stern  precision,  even  the  innocent 
sport  of  the  fancy  seemed  a  crime."  * 

*Macaulay's  Ilixtory  of  England,  vol.  i.  chap.  ii. 


CHAPTER  II 

LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES 

THE  beginnings  of  Colonial  literature  were  what 
we  should  expect  from  snch  conditions  as  we  have 
described  in  the  foregoing  chapter.  In  the  seven 
teenth  century  literature  had  not  yet  become  a  recog 
nized  profession  in  England ;  what  wonder,  then,  that 
in  the  wilds  of  America  men  could  not  give  up  their 
lives  to  letters,  but  that  they  wrote  only  with  a 
directly  practical  purpose,  and  as  a  side  interest  in 
busy  and  stirring  lives.  The  desire  of  men  and  of 
nations  to  hand  down  some  record  of  themselves  and 
their  doings  to  those  that  come  after  is  a  deep  and 
general  human  impulse,  and  is  one  of  the  earliest  in 
centives  to  literary  composition.  The  early  explorers 
and  colonists  of  America  shared  in  this  natural  wish 
to  make  such  a  record  of  Avhat  they  had  seen  and 
done.  Consequently  many  of  our  earliest  books  were 
stories  of  adventures  in  the  new  laud,  with  descrip 
tions  of  its  scenery,  and  of  the  strange  appearance 
and  customs  of  its  savage  people.  These  books  belong 
to  the  same  class  as  those  which  record  the  voyages  of 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Martin  Frobisher,  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  and  the  other  great  sea-dogs  of  the  Eliza- 

86 


LITERATURE   IN    THE    COLONIES  37 

bethan  time.  Then,  too,  people  in  England  naturally 
felt  the  greatest  curiosity  about  the  far-off  regions  in 
which  their  kindred  had  made  a  home.  There  was  a 
yet  more  practical  reason  for  writing  books  of  this 
kind.  The  country  wanted  colonists,  and  these 
reports  of  it  were  often  intended  to  encourage  emi 
gration,  put  forth  very  much  as  we  should  now  issue 
a  prospectus  of  Alaska  or  of  some  sparsely-settled 
region  of  the  West. 

THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

American  literature  begins  in  the  South,  the 
earliest-settled  region  of  our  country,  and  among  its 
first  productions  we  find  books  of  travel  and  adventure 
such  as  we  have  just  described.  It  is  a  book  of  travel, 
CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH'S  True  Relation  of  such  Occur 
rences  and  Accidents  of  Note  as  Hath  Happened  in 
Virginia  (1608),  thab  has  gained  the  reputation  of 
being  the  first  American  book.  Its  claim  to  this  dis 
tinction  appears  to  be  somewhat  doubtful,  as  Smith 
returned  to  England  after  his  exploits  in  this  country 
and  ended  his  days  there.  His  accounts  of  American 
exploration  and  settlement,  therefore,  are  strictly  the 
books  of  an  Englishman  about  America,  with  no 
more  title  to  be  called  American  literature  than 
Professor  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth.  But, 
English  or  American,  we  cannot  afford  to  pass  over 
either  these  books  or  their  author.  The  famous 
Captain  John  Smith  was  born  in  a  Lincolnshire  village 
in  1580,  the  very  year  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  first 
Englishman  to  sail  round  the  world,  was  welcomed 


38        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

home  from  his  famous  voyage  with  great  rejoicings. 
He  opened  his  eyes  on  a  world  of  gallant  exploits  and 
strange  adventures  in  the  far  corners  of  the  earth. 
England  was  ringing  with  the  fame  of  her  great  navi 
gators,  and  Smith,  born  almost  in  sight  of  the  sea, 
tells  ITS  that  even  from  his  boyhood  "  his  mind  was  set 
upon  brave  adventures."  The  roving  spirit  was  so 
strong  that  when  about  thirteen  he  sold  his  satchel 
and  books,  and  resolved  to  run  away  to  sea.  His 
father's  death  interrupted  the  execution  of  this  plan; 
but  about  two  years  later  he  left  home  for  a  wander 
ing  life  full  of  strange  adventures  in  many  lands.  As 
we  read  of  his  lighting,  his  shipwrecks,  his  romantic 
rescues  by  "  honorable  and  virtuous  Ladies,"  he  seems 
to  us  like  some  resplendent  knight-errant,  a  hero  of 
mediasval  romance,  actually  alive  in  that  brave  six 
teenth-century  world.  On  a  voyage  to  Italy  he  is 
thrown  into  the  sea  by  "  a  rabble  of  Pilgrims  of  divers 
nations,"  who,  "  hourly  cursing  him"  for  a  heretic, 
swear  they  will  have  no  good  weather  so  long  as  he  is 
on  board.  In  a  war  against  the  Turks,  the  ladies 
longing  to  see  "  some  courtlike  pastime,"  he  succes 
sively  overcomes  three  Turkish  champions  in  single 
combat  and  cuts  off  their  heads.  Unfortunately  our 
chief  authority  for  Smith's  life  is  the  narrative  of  the 
hero  himself,  and  many  believe  that  his  exploits  lost 
nothing  in  the  telling.  Probably  the  childish  vanity 
at  times  apparent  in  his  writings  may  be  partly  due 
to  a  dreamy  spirit  which  loved  to  surround  his  adven 
tures  with  that  romantic  glamour  in  which  his  im 
agination  delighted.  An  old  English  writer,  Thomas 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   COLONIES  39 

Fuller,  tells  us  that  in  Smith's  old  age  in  London, 
when  beset  by  poverty,  he  "  efforted  [strengthened] 
his  spirits  with  the  remembrance  and  relation  of  what 
he  formerly  had  been  and  what  he  had  done."* 
This  is  as  natural  as  it  is  pathetic,  and  helps  us  to  a 
better  understanding  of  his  character  and  his  books. 
Xevertheless,  Smith  was  no  empty  boaster,  but  shrewd 
and  capable,  a  man  for  a  crisis,  and  a  born  leader. 
The  great  part  he  took  in  American  colonization 
belongs  to  history;  our  present  interest  is  in  the  books 
in  which  he  jotted  down  the  story  of  his  settlement 
of  Virginia,  and  his  subsequent  exploration  of  Xew 
England.  Smith  was  a  prolific  and,  no  doubt,  a 
rapid  writer;  but,  like  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  he  made 
authorship  merely  an  incident  in  a  life  crowded  with 
dangers  and  brave  deeds.  As  we  might  expect,  he  is 
not  a  finished  writer;  but  his  books  are  graphic  and 
entertaining,  and  full  of  the  vigor  and  power  of  the 
man.  If  his  love  of  "brave  adventure"  and  the 
spirit  of  the  artist  made  him  occasionally  draw  upon 
his  imagination  to  heighten  the  interest,  at  least  some 
of  his  readers  will  be  secretly  thankful  for  the  romance, 
and  pardon  the  trifling  lapses  from  truth. 

The  literature  of  the  South  during  the  Colonial  era 
is  just  what  the  conditions  of  life  would  lead  us  to 

expect.     There  are  few  books,  and  fewer    . 

Literature 

authors,  and  the  work  produced,  while  of  the 
valuable  to  the  historian  or  interesting  to  Soutl1- 
the  curious  student,  shows  no  exceptional  literary 

*  Fuller's  Worthies  of  England,  p.  180  (ed.  1662). 


40        INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN"    LITERATURE 

merit  or  original  power.  One  of  the  most  vigorous 
and  graphic  bits  of  prose  is  an  account  of  the  expedi 
tion  to  Virginia  of  Sir  Thomas  Eaton,  whose  ship  was 
wrecked  on  one  of  the  Bermudas  in  1G10.  The  story 
is  told  by  William  Strachy,  one  of  the  company,  and 
the  description  of  the  storm  is  supposed  to  have 
furnished  some  hints  to  Shakespeare  in  the  composi 
tion  of  The  Tempest.  Small  as  is  the  amount  of 
this  Southern  literature,  the  portion  of  it  which 
can  fairly  be  called  American  is  smaller  still.  We 
can  hardly  claim  books  written  "during  a  short  stay 
in  America  as  a  part  of  our  literature,  yet  if  such 
books  are  excluded  from  these  early  writings  of  the 
South  but  little  remains.  According  to  Prof.  Tyler, 
there  were  only  six  authors  in  Virginia  during  the 
first  twenty  years  of  its  settlement,  "  who  yet  live 
and  deserve  to  live."  But  of  these  six  we  find 
that  all  but  one  returned  to  England  after  a  brief 
residence.  Kor  is  this  all;  this  little  group  of  foreign 
writers  is  followed  by  no  strong  indigenous  growth, 
and  from  1627  to  the  close  of  the  century  the  history 
of  Southern  literature  is  but  little  more  than  a  blank. 
There  are  only  about  eleven  writers  in  the  South 
before  the  Revolution,  including  the  six  already 
referred  to,  who  hold  a  place,  more  or  less  formal,  in 
literary  history,  and  ten  out  of  the  eleven  deal  with 
the  history  of  the  country,  or  relate  some  personal 
adventures,  often  semi-historical  in  their  character. 
Bacon's  rebellion  in  1G75  against  the  autocratic  Gov 
ernor  Berkeley  is  the  occasion  of  some  powerful 
verses  by  an  unknown  hand,  but  with  this  exception 


LITERATURE   IN   THE    COLONIES  41 

the  English  poet  George  Sandys's  Translation  of  Ovid 
(1G~1-G)  is  the  only  notable  contribution  to  literature 
in  the  strictest  sense.  A  high  authority  speaks  of 
this  translation  as  "  the  first  monument  of  English 
poetry,  of  classical  scholarship,  and  of  deliberate 
literary  art  reared  on  these  shores;"*  but  when  we 
reflect  that  it  was  begun  in  England  and  published  in 
London,  and  that  our  only  claim  to  it  arises  from  the 
fact  that  it  was  completed  during  the  author's  brief 
stay  in  Virginia,  we  can  hardly  regard  it  as  in  any 
true  sense  our  own. 

Looking,  then,  at  this  Southern  Colonial  literature 
as  a  whole,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  during  this  period 
the  affluent  and  semi-feudal  South,  with  its  general 
illiteracy  and  its  aristocratic  denial  of  freedom  of 
thought,  had  not  begun  to  create  a  true  and  end  tiring 
literature. 

THE    LITERATURE    OF    NEW    ENGLAND 

The  strongly  marked  personality  of  the  Puritan  is 
deeply  impressed  upon  the  literature  of  New  England, 
giving  it  from  the  first  a  well-defined  and  distinctive 
character.  The  intense  conviction  of  the  reality  of 
the  spiritual  and  the  unseen,  present  as  a  living  force 
in  man's  daily  life  and  entering  into  its  smallest  and 
most  ordinary  details,  an  inexorable  conscience  and 
the  rigors  of  an  exacting  and  often  joyless  creed,  these 
things  create  the  atmosphere  which  makes  the  litera 
ture  of  this  great  section  a  thing  apart.  We  are  im 
pressed  with  the  large  number  of  books  on  religious 

*  Tyler's  American  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  55. 


42        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

and  theological  topics.  Besides  these  larger  and  more 
formal  treatises,  learned  clergymen  assail  each  other 
with  tracts  upon  hotly-contested  points  of  doctrine, 
and  the  air  is  "  black  with  sermons."  In  such  works 
we  see  the  provincial  branch  of  that  English  literature 
of  theological  treatise  and  pamphlet  warfare  to  which 
Milton  himself  was  a  contributor.  Thus,  by  putting 
three  thousand  miles  of  sea  between  himself  and  the 
fierce  disputations  that  were  being  waged  at  home,  the 
Puritan  changed  his  skies,  but  not  his  mind. 

Nor  is  it  merely  in  works  of  a  professedly  religious 
nature  that  this  especial  note  of  the  Puritan  is  heard : 
it  recurs  at  intervals  in  those  diaries  and  histories 
which  were  written  in  New  England  as  in  the  other 
Colonies,  and  repeats  itself  with  still  greater  distinct 
ness  in  the  stray  bits  of  crude  verse  that  were  labo 
riously  brought  forth  amid  the  chill  and  hardness  of 
that  sober-minded  land. 

The  first- — and  as  original  authorities  perhaps  the 
most  important — among  the  historical  writings  are 

those  of  WILLIAM  BRADFORD  (1588-1657), 
Histories 

and  jour-  the  second  governor  of  Plymouth.  Brad- 
nail,  ford  was  sprung  from  the  yeoman  class  in 
Yorkshire.  From  his  boyhood  he  had  showed  a 
decidedly  religious  bent,  and,  having  separated  him 
self  from  the  Church  of  England,  he  came  to  America 
on  the  Mayflower  in  1 620.  He  and  his  fellow-passenger 
EDWARD  WINSLOW  kept  a  journal  which  dates  from 
the  day  on  which  they  first  saw  the  new  land ;  but 
Bradford's  more  ambitious  and  important  work  is  his 
History  of  Plymouth,  in  which  he  gives  a  full  and 


LITERATURE   IN   THE    COLONIES  43 

clearly  written  account  of  the  planting  and  early  his 
tory  of  that  colony  to  KJ49. 

Side  by  side  with  Bradford,  the  early  governor  and 
historian  of  Plymouth,  we  may  appropriately  place 
JOHN  WINTHROP  (1588-1G49),  the  governor  and  his 
torian  of  the  sister  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Of 
good  family,  a  student  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
the  son  of  a  lawyer,  and  himself  bred  to  that  profes 
sion,  Winthrop  is  among  those  choice  spirits  of 
scholarly  training  and  sterling  manhood  who  were 
being  lost  to  England  and  gained  for  America  by  the 
stringency  of  Laud  and  the  tyranny  and  duplicity  of 
Charles  the  First.  His  so-called  History  of  New 
England  is  really  an  unpretentious  journal,  a  record 
of  every-day  happenings,  as  well  as  of  those  momen 
tous  events  in  which  he  played  so  great  a  part.  It 
describes  the  voyage  to  America,  and  gives  us,  in  the 
form  of  a  simple,  personal  narrative,  much  valuable 
knowledge  of  the  progress  of  the  settlement  until 
1(>49.  Many  a  homely  incident,  as  that  of  the  cow 
that  died  at  Plymouth  from  eating  Indian  corn,  seems 
to  us  but  the  gossip  of  a  day,  yet,  like  the  musty 
columns  of  an  old  newspaper,  it  helps  to  bring  us 
closer  to  the  past.  In  places  the  style  has  a  genuine 
freshness  and  charm.  "  We  had  now  fair  sunshine 
weather,  and  so  pleasant  a  sweet  air  as  did  much 
refresh  us,  and  there  came  a  smell  off  the  shore  like 
the  smell  of  a  garden."*  In  such  a  sentence  we 

*WintLrop's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  23  (Savage's 
ed.,  1825). 


44        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

recognize  that  captivating  turn  of  phrase  which 
Stevenson,  that  great  modern  master  of  the  prose  of 
adventure,  seems  to  have  learned  in  part  from  the 
narrative  of  the  old  English  navigators.  Winthrop's 
pages  furnish  many  evidences  of  that  belief  in  the 
direct  ordering  of  human  affairs  by  a  Higher  Power 
to  which  we  have  already  alluded.  Two  children  are 
driven  into  the  house  by  the  wind  in  time  to  escape 
death  from  a  fall  of  logs,  which  would  have  "  crushed 
them,  if  the  Lord  in  his  special  providence  had  not 
delivered  them."  Two  men,  having  lost  their  boat, 
are  left  upon  an  oyster-bank,  and  "  although  they 
might  have  waded  out  on  either  side,"  they  are 
drowned.  "  This,"  "\Vinthrop  adds,  "  was  an  evident 
judgment  of  God  upon  them,  for  they  were  wicked 
persons."!  The  following  account  of  the  extra 
ordinary  action  of  a  certain  Mr.  Glover  and  its 
tragical  consequences  is  not  free  from  an  unconscious 
humor: 

"  One  Mr.  Glover  of  Dorchester,  having  laid  sixty 
pounds  of  gunpowder  in  bags  to  dry  in  the  end  of  his 
chimney,  it  took  fire,  and  some  went  up  the  chimney; 
other  of  it  filled  the  room  and  passed  out  at  a  door 
into  another  room,  and  blew  up  a  gable  end.  A  maid 
which  was  in  the  room  .  .  .  was  scorched,  and  died 
soon  after.  A  little  child  in  the  arms  of  another 
was  scorched  upon  the  face,  but  not  killed.  Two  men 
were  singed,  but  not  much.  Divers  pieces  [firearms] 

*  Winthrop's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  100. 
f  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES  45 

which  lay  charged  in  several  places  took  fire  and  went 
off,  but  did  no  harm.  Another  great  providence  was, 
that  two  little  children,  being  at  the  lire  a  little 
before,  they  went  out  to  play  (though  it  was  a  very 
cold  day)  and  so  were  preserved."  *  Here  and  there 
some  chance  anecdote  or  allusion  shows  us  how  near 
and  real  religion  and  conscience  were  to  the  people's 
life.  AVe  are  told  of  a  boy  of  fourteen,  who,  although 
"a  dutiful  child,"  becomes  "  humbled  and  broken 
for  his  sins,"  so  that  he  went  "  mourning  and  lan 
guishing  daily."  j  A  man  who  is  not  a  church- 
member  awakes  at  night  with  a  cry,  starts  from  his 
bed,  and  jumps  out  of  the  window  into  the  snow7  and 
runs  for  miles.  The  next  morning  he  is  traced  by 
his  footprints,  and  those  in  search  of  him  see  by  the 
marks  in  the  snow  that  he  has  "  kneeled  down  to 
prayer  in  divers  places."  About  seven  miles  from 
home  they  come  upon  his  dead  body.J  AVinthrop 
tells  the  story  briefly  and  without  comment,  but  the 
incident  has  in  it  a  very  melancholy  and  tragic  power; 
it  is  full  of  meaning,  and  it  suggests  to  our  imagina 
tion  much  that  is  not  directly  told.  The  midnight 
call  to  the  troubled  conscience;  the  frantic  flight 
through  the  winter's  night;  the  strange,  silent  wit 
nesses  to  those  secret  and  awful  wrestlings  in  the  dark, 
— these  things  force  home  on  us  one  side  of  New  Eng 
land  life,  in  all  its  dark  and  forbidding  reality.  It 
was  the  brooding,  morbid,  but  intensely  ideal  temper 

*  Winthropls  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  212. 
\Ilnd..  vol.  i.  p.  126.  \lbid.,  vol.  i.  p.  214. 


46        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

of  this  life  that  the  genius  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne 
was  to  interpret  in  a  generation  to  come. 

We  find  the  same  spirit  in  regard  to  unseen  and 
spiritual  things  in  the  more  professedly  religious 
The  books,  but  of  course  greatly  intensified  and 

Mathers.  less  mixed  with  worldly  affairs.  A  large 
part  of  the  writing  done  in  New  England  was  the 
work  of  the  ministers.  We  have  already  spoken  of 
their  importance  in  a  community  which  strove  to 
make  the  law  of  man  coincide  with  the  law  of  God. 
As  authorized  expounders  of  God's  laws  they  were 
recognized  leaders,  and  their  opinions  on  political  and 
social  as  well  as  on  religious  matters  were  regarded 
with  extraordinary  deference.  As  a  class,  they  were 
incomparably  the  best  trained  and  most  scholarly  men 
in  the  Colonies,  and  the  incessant  writing  of  sermons 
helped  to  give  them  an  alarming  facility  in  composi 
tion.  Such  circumstances  combined  to  make  the 
ministers  of  New  England  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
directly  literary  class. 

Perhaps  the  best  illustration  of  the  commanding 

influence  and  importance   of  the  ministry  in   New 

England  is  to  be  found  in  the  famous  scholars  and 

preachers  of  the  Mather  family,  who  for 

The  Mather  four  successive  generations  made  the  pul- 
dynasty. 

pit  a  throne  of  power.     Through  BICHARD 

MATHER  (1596-1669),  the  first  in  this  clerical  succes 
sion,  INCREASE  MATHER  (1639-1723),  his  famous 
son,  and  COTTON  MATHER  (1663-1728),  his  yet  more 
famous  grandson,  this  remarkable  family  was  a  growing 
power  in  New  England  life  and  thought  for  nearly  a 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES  4? 

hundred  years.  The  Mathers  were  men  of  fine  pres 
ence,  of  iron  constitutions,  with  tremendous  wills,  and 
a  capacity  for  toil  that  carried  them  through  lives  of 
tireless  intellectual  labor.  Enormous  readers  and 
prodigious  writers,  these  three  men  must  have  pro 
duced  in  all  between  five  and  six  hundred  works, 
including  tracts,  sermons,  and  pamphlets,  besides 
hundreds  of  pages  of  manuscript  which  remain  yet 
unpublished.  The  strong  family  traits  are  repeated 
from  one  generation  to  another,  growing  weaker  at  last 
in  SAMUEL  MATHER  (170G-1785),  the  son  of  Cotton, 
author  and  minister  like  the  rest,  and  the  last  of  the 
line.  Richard  Mather,  driven  by  persecution  to  take 
refuge  in  New  England  in  1035,  labored  for  half  a 
century  "  as  minister  of  the  Church  of  God."  The 
description  given  of  him  suggests  dignity  and  power: 
"  His  voice  was  loud  and  big;  and,  uttered  with  a 
deliberate  vehemency,  it  procured  unto  his  ministry 
an  awful  and  very  taking  majesty."  *  We  are 
amazed  at  the  tremendous  vitality  of  these  men;  at 
their  indefatigable  energy.  Increase  Mather  lived  to 
the  age  of  eighty-five,  and  was  for  more  than  sixty 
years  "  a  laborious  preacher  of  Christ."  Besides  the 
labors  of  his  ministry,  he  was  for  nearly  twenty  years 
the  acting  or  actual  president  of  Harvard  College,  and 
was  during  four  critical  years  the  representative  of 
Massachusetts  to  England.  With  all  this  he  found 
time  to  write  one  hundred  and  sixty  books  and  tracts, 
and  to  read  innumerable  books — more,  probably,  than 

*  Mather's  Magnalia,  vol.  i.  p.  452. 


48        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

any  American  of  his  day.  Like  his  father,  he  seems 
to  have  impressed  men  with  the  awe  that  the  New 
England  minister  so  often  inspired.  We  are  told  that 
"  he  had  an  awful  and  reverend  manner  "  in  leading 
"  the  public  addresses  to  (rod,"  and  that  his  face  as 
well  as  his  words  constrained  devotion.*  Cotton 
Mather  won  an  even  wider  distinction  than  his  father 
for  his  miscellaneous  learning  and  literary  productive 
ness.  If  study  could  make  a  great  man,  it  would  have 
made  a  genius  of  Cotton  Mather,  lie  had  the  largest 
private  library  in  the  Colonies.  He  understood  many 
languages,  and  some  of  his  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  published  works  are  written  in  French,  in 
Spanish,  and  in  Algonquin.  For  over  forty  years  he 
occupied  the  pulpit  in  the  North  Church,  Boston,  at 
first  as  assistant  to  his  father;  he  was  elected  Fellow 
of  the  Eoyal  Society — a  high  honor  for  a  colonist  in 
those  days,  and  became  better  known  in  Europe  for 
his  learning  than  any  American  of  his  time.  Not 
withstanding  all  these  successes,  his  life,  Avhen  we 
come  to  know  it  more  clearly,  moves  us  to  pity  and 
regret  rather  than  to  admiration,  for  in  spite  of  sin 
cerely  good  intentions  it  exhibited  those  defects  and 
mistakes  which  even  in  his  lifetime  New  England  was 
beginning  to  outgrow.  He  was  a  bright  boy,  from 
whom  much  had  been  expected.  Heir  to  the  prestige 
and  influence  of  a  distinguished  family,  crammed 
with  Latin  and  theology  from  his  precocious  youth, 

*  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  vol.  i.  p.  158.     (Funeral 
sermon  on  Increase  Mather.) 


LITERATURE  IN  THE  COLONIES        49 

surrounded  during  his  early  manhood  with  an  at 
mosphere  of  deference  and  adulation,  Mather's  cir 
cumstances  naturally  tended  to  make  him  vain  and 
overbearing.  Besides  this,  he  was  a  devourer  of  books 
rather  than  an  original  thinker  or  a  man  of  practical 
judgment;  his  retentive  memory  was  stored  with  a 
mass  of  curious  and  ill-digested  learning,  and  the 
learned  allusions  with  which  his  works  are  burdened, 
having  often  but  a  slight  and  fanciful  connection  with 
the  subject  in  hand,  give  his  writing  an  unwieldy  and 
pedantic  tone.  There  was  a  consuming  earnestness 
in  this  singular  character,  with  the  asceticism  of  some 
religious  enthusiast  of  the  middle  ages.  At  fourteen 
he  began  the  systematic  observance  of  fasts  and  vigils, 
a  practice  which  he  continued  until  late  in  life.  It 
was  his  ambition  to  resemble  a  certain  rabbi  "  whose 
face  was  black  by  reason  of  his  fastings."  It  was  his 
habit  to  make  the  most  ordinary  events  the  occasion 
of  some  spiritual  lesson,  both  for  his  own  benefit  and 
also  for  the  training  of  his  family.  "  Two  of  my 
children,"  he  writes,  "  have  been  newly  scorched 
with  gunpowder,  wherein,  though  they  have  received 
a  merciful  deliverance,  yet  they  undergo  a  smart  that 
is  considerable.  I  must  improve  this  occasion  to  in 
culcate  lessons  of  piety  upon  them,  especially  with 
relation  to  their  danger  of  everlasting  burnings."* 
Beginning  life  full  of  ambition  and  zeal,  Mather's 
later  years  were  embittered  by  disappointment  and 
darkened  by  domestic  sorrows.  Both  tradition  and 

*  Peabody's  Life  of  Mather,  iii  Sparks'  American  Biography, 
vol.  vi.  p.  194. 


50        INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

inheritance  bound  him  to  a  time  when  the  clergy  of 
New  England  had  wielded  a  tremendous  civil  power, 
but  it  was  his  lot  to  live  when  this  political  power  was 
fast  slipping  away.  New  and  more  liberal  ideas 
began  to  prevail;  many  were  beginning  to  hold  that 
the  right  to  vote  should  be  less  rigidly  restricted  to 
church-members.  So  Mather  stood  committed  by  all 
his  life  and  training  to  be  the  champion  of  a  system 
of  ecclesiastical  influence  in  State  affairs,  condemned 
by  the  natural  laws  of  growth  to  pass  away.  Such  a 
situation  is  not  without  pathos.  Under  strangely 
altered  conditions,  he  fought  over  again  Thomas  a 
Becket's  battle  for  a  lost  cause.  Lacking,  it  seems 
to  us,  the  help  of  a  lovable  and  winning  personality, 
many  of  Mather's  conscientious  attempts  to  assist 
others  were  met  with  coldness,  and,  as  he  complained, 
with  ingratitude.  The  man  himself,  with  his  pathetic 
failures  and  mistakes,  his  asceticism,  his  omnivorous 
learning  and  narrowness  of  mind,  has  an  interest  for 
us  quite  apart  from  his  books,  for  he  is  in  many  ways 
the  most  significant  figure  in  the  Colonial  history  of 
his  time. 

Mather   was  the  last  notable  representative  of   a 

New  England  that    was  breaking  up  and  changing 

in  accordance  with  more  liberal  ideas ;  in 

Mather's  ^s  writings  the  traditions  and  ideals  of 
work. 

that  earlier  NCAV  England  survive.    In  his 

most  famous  book,  the  Magnolia  Christ i  Americana, 
or  The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  New  England  (1702), 
he  points  the  young  generation  to  those  traditions 
which  he  thought  it  wholesome  for  them  to  remem- 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES  51 

ber,  and  those  ideals  from  which  lie  feared  they  were 
inclined  to  fall  away.*  lie  would  recall  a  backsliding 
generation  by  praising  the  wondrous  deeds  of  their 
fathers  that  begat  them,  by  reminding  them  that 
the  hand  of  God  was  as  truly  manifest  in  the  plant 
ing  of  New  England  as  in  the  departure  of  Abraham 
from  Chaldea.  "  Tantce  molis  erat,  pro  CIIRISTO 
condcrc  gent  em," — this  motto,  which  confronts  us 
from  the  title-page  of  the  Magnah'a,  gives  us  the  key 
to  the  spirit  in  which  the  history  is  told.  The 
Naynalia  is  a  huge,  unwieldy  work;  it  passes  from 
historical  narrative  to  brief  biographies  of  the  prin 
cipal  governors  and  divines  of  New  England,  and 
includes  a  review,  in  eight  chapters,  of  many  illustrious 
and  wonderful  providences,  both  of  mercies  and  judg 
ments.  Its  pages  are  as  thickly  strown  Avith  Latin 
quotations  as  a  barren  New  England  hillside  with 
bowlders,  and  the  author's  learning  is  obtruded  into 
the  simplest  thought.  Even  in  this  intricate  and 
fantastic  style,  modelled  chiefly  after  the  quaint  and 

*"  Mankind  will  pardon  me  ...  if,  smitten  with  a  just  fear 
of  incroacliing  and  ill-bodied  degeneracies,  I  sliall  use  my 
modest  endeavors  to  prevent  the  loss  of  a  country  so  signalized 
for  the  profession  of  the  purest  Religion.  ...  I  shall  count  my 
country  lost  in  the  loss  of  the  primitive  principles  and  the 
primitive  practices  upon  which  it  was  first  established ;  hut 
certainly  one  good  way  to  save  that  loss  would  be  to  do  some 
thing,  that  the  memory  of  the  great  things  done  for  us  by  our 
God  may  not  be  lost,  and  that  the  story  of  the  circumstances 
attending  the  foundation  and  formation  of  this  country  and  of 
its  preservation  hitherto,  may  be  impartially  handed  unto 
posterity." — Maynalia,  Bk.  I.,  Introd. 


52        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

somewhat  ungainly  prose  of  certain  seventeenth-cen 
tury  writers  in  England,  Mather  represented  a  fashion 
which  his  contemporaries  had  already  abandoned. 

As  we  see  in  the  Magnolia  the  intense  Puritan 
conviction  that  God  was  as  truly  ordering  the  destinies 
of  men  as  in  the  days  when  the  children  of  Israel  were 
His  chosen  people,  so  in  another  famous  book  of 
Mather's,  The  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World  (1692), 
we  find  an  equally  strong  apprehension  of  the  personal 
presence  of  the  powers  of  evil.  This  invisible  world 
came  very  close  to  him,  and  he  saw  in  New  England 
the  battle-ground  for  its  spiritual  hosts.  Mather 
believed  that  before  the  Puritans  came  the  land  had 
been  the  territory  of  the  Devil,  where  he  had  "  reigned 
without  any  control  for  many  ages."  The  setting  up 
of  a  kingdom  of  God  within  his  kingdom  had  filled 
him  with  fury,  and  he  had  tried  many  ways  to  recover 
possession.  "  I  believe,"  Mather  wrote,  "  that  never 
were  more  satanical  devices  used  for  the  unsettling  of 
any  people  under  the  sun,  than  what  have  been  here 
employ 'd  for  the  extirpation  of  the  vine  which  God 
has  here  planted."  *  Foiled  in  all  the  more  indirect 
means,  the  Devil  at  length  came  in  person  with  his 
hosts,  and  organized  a  conspiracy  for  recovering  the 
land.  Mather  and  many  others  believed  that  the  evil 
powers  had  entered  into  many  unhappy  creatures,  who 
had  been  induced  to  assist  him  in  his  plot.  The  be 
lief  in  witchcraft  was  not  peculiar  to  New  England, 
but  the  brooding  and  fanatical  intensity  of  the  New 

*  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World,  Sect.  I.  §  II. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES  53 

England  mind  gave  this  dark  superstition  a  peculiar 
power.  We  need  not  tell  the  story  of  the  witch-trials 
at  Salem — perhaps  the  most  tragic  episode  in  our  early 
history:  it  is  enough  to  say  that  Cotton  Mather's  in 
fluence  and  writings  were  largely  responsible  for  this 
horrible  delusion.  To  his  excited  fancy  the  devils 
swarmed  in  multitudes  like  the  frogs  in  the  plagues  of 
Egypt,*  and  "  Behold!  sinners!  "  he  exclaims,  "  the 
very  devils  are  walking  about  our  streets  with  length 
ened  chains,  making  a  dreadful  noise  in  our  ears,  and 
Brimstone,  even  without  a  metaphor,  is  making  an 
hellish  and  horrid  stench  in  our  nostrils,  "f  Pain 
ful  as  are  Mather's  works  on  this  theme,  they  yet 
show  us  the  depth  and  height  of  the  Puritan  nature, 
at  home  beyond  the  borders  of  the  invisible  and  per 
sonifying  with  the  definiteness  of  Dante's  vision  the 
eternal  conflict  in  the  souls  of  men.  To  the  Xew 
England  Puritan  this  eternal  conflict  was  the  great 
fact  of  the  world ;  but  he  hated  iniquity  rather  than 
loved  mercy,  and  added  to  his  intense  hatred  of  sin 
an  equally  intense  satisfaction  in  the  punishment 
of  the  sinner.  This  last  trait  is  strongly  shown  in 
that  characteristic  poem,  once  widely  popular  in 
New  England,  Michael  Wigglesworth's  Day  of  Doom. 

Before   considering   this    extraordinary 
work,  we  must  speak  briefly  of  early  verse-    New  Eng- 
writing   in    New   England.      "\Ve   should    land- 
wrong  the  Puritan  if  we  failed  to  perceive  that,  with 

*  Mather's  Wonders  of  tlie  Invisible  World. 
\  Ibid. 


54        INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

all  his  outward  austerity  and  reserve,  he  had  yet  the 
stirrings  of  a  deep  poetic  feeling  latent  within  him. 
Living  among  the  eternal  questions  of  conscience,  and 
near  to  the  mysteries  of  the  unseen,  his  life  could  not 
but  nourish  that  spirituality  and  mysticism  which  has 
continued  to  characterize  the  literature  of  New  Eng 
land.  But  this  pent-up  poetry  of  the  New  Englander 
found  no  natural  and  spontaneous  outflow  in  song. 
The  untaught  art  by  which  the  people  of  Scotland 
or  England  shaped  and  rounded  song  and  ballad  into 
a  thing  of  beauty  and  power  seemed  to  have  no 
place  in  his  composition.  The  minstrels  of  early  New 
England  were  Puritan  divines,  who  elaborated  dog 
gerel  epitaphs,  and  produced  the  harshest  and  crudest 
versification  of  the  Psalter.  This  version,  commonly 
known  as  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  (1G40),  was  in  general 
use  for  many  years  among  the  New  England  churches. 
It  is  so  exceedingly  rough  and  labored  that  no  one 
with  an  ear  for  poetry  can  read  it  without  positive 
pain,  yet  it  was  the  work  of  men  who  may  be  fairly 
said  to  represent  the  best  New  England  scholarship 
of  their  time.  Prominent  in  the  undertaking  were 
Richard  Mather,  sometime  student  at  Oxford,  and 
John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  of  the  Indians,  who  was  a 
graduate  of  Cambridge.  It  seems  incredible  that 
such  men  should  have  been  incapable  of  complying 
with  the  ordinary  rules  of  verse-making  had  they 
chosen  to  do  so,  and  in  fact  the  chief  cause  of  the 
roughness  of  their  version  was  their  determination  to 
sacrifice  poetry  to  the  literal  accuracy  of  their  trans 
lation.  They  announce  in  their  preface  that  they 


LITERATURE   IX   THE   COLONIES  55 

have  "  attempted  conciseness  rather  than  elegance, 
fidelity  rather  than  poetry";  and  the  declaration 
shows  the  strength  and  narrowness  of  the  religious 
feeling  in  New  England,  and  the  comparative  indiffer 
ence  to  beauty  and  art.  The  idea  that  they  were 
desecrating  the  Bible  they  reverenced  by  converting 
some  of  the  noblest  poetry  of  the  world  into  childish 
doggerel  had  no  place  in  their  minds.  The  verses, 
accordingly,  jostle  along  like  a  disorderly  mob,  in 
stead  of  marching  with  the  ordered  step  of  an  army. 
AVhen  we  imagine  ourselves  within  the  chill  rectangu 
lar  interior  of  some  Puritan  meeting-house,  and  think 
of  these  verses  given  out  line  by  line,  and  droned 
over,  without  instrumental  accompaniment,  to  some 
well-worn  tune;  when  we  reflect  that,  sung  in  this 
fashion,  they  were  immensely  popular  throughout 
New  England  until  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution, — the  aesthetic  limitations  of  Puritanism 
become  more  plain.*  The  memorial  verses,  usually  on 

*For  general  accounts  of  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalter, 
including  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  see  articles  on  English 
Hymnology,  The  English  Psalter,  in  Julian's  Dictionary  of 
Hymnology.  See  also  The  Ancient  Psalmody  and  Hymnology 
of  New  England,  by  Samuel  E.  Staples  ;  Palfrey's  History  of 
New  England,  vol.  v.,  note,  pp.  221,  222.  The  musical  defi 
ciencies  of  early  New  England  congregations  should  not  be 
overlooked.  It  is  said  that  "  not  more  than  ten  different  tunes 
•were  used  in  public  worship  for  eighty  or  ninety  years.  Few 
congregations  could  sing  more  than  five  tunes."  Coffin's  His 
tory  of  Neicbury,  p.  185,  quoted  by  Palfrey,  vol.  ii.;  History  of 
New  England,  vol.  ii.,  note,  p.  41.  When  the  music  improved, 
the  poetry  of  the  metrical  versions  improved  also. 


56        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

the  death  of  some  minister  or  governor,  are  chiefly 
remarkable  for  their  frigid  quaintness  of  expression 
and  their  lack  of  any  saving  grace  of  humor.  Thus 
the  pompous  movement  of  some  lines  bewailing  the 
death  of  Sir  William  Pbips,  one  of  the  governors  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  is  so  suddenly  interrupted  as  to 
bring  us  close  to  the  ridiculous : 

"  Our  Almanacks  foretold  a  great  eclipse: 
This  they  foresaw  not  of  our  greater  Pinrs. " 

The  following  promise  is  made  to  the  shade  of  the 
departed  governor: 

"Now  lest  ungrateful  brands  we  should  incur, 
Your  salary  we'll  pay  in  tears,  GKEAT  SIK."* 

In  some  cases  we  come  upon  far-fetched  compari 
sons,  or  "  conceits,"  as  they  were  called,  such  as  were 
in  favor  with  Donne,  Herbert,  Crashaw,  and  other 
early  seventeenth-century  poets  in  England.  Thus 
in  some  memorial  verses  we  are  told  that  John  Cotton 
was — 

"A  living,  breathing  Bible ;  tables  where 
Both  Covenants,  at  large,  engraven  were  ; 
Gospel  and  Law,  in's  heart,  had  each  its  column  ; 
His  head  an  index  to  the  sacred  volume  ; 
His  very  name  a  title-page  ;  and  next, 
His  life  a  commentary  on  the  text. 
O,  what  a  monument  of  glorious  worth, 
When,  in  a  new  editim,  he  comes  forth, 
Without  erratas  may  we  think  he'll  be, 
In  leaves  and  covers  of  eternity. "f 

*  Elegy  xipon  the  death  of  Sir  William  Phips.  Mather's 
Magnolia,  Bk.  II. 

f  Lines  on  Cotton,  by  B.  Woodbridge,  in  Mather's  Mayna- 
lia,  Bk.  III. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   COLONIES  57 

This  "  mortuary  muse,"  as  Lowell  calls  it,  Avas 
commonly  invoked  by  those  who  looked  upon  the 
writing  of  poetry  only  as  an  incidental  accomplish 
ment,  but  there  is  one  verse-writer  of  early 
New  England  who  produced  so  large  a  Anne  Brad- 
bulk  of  verse  as  to  leave  us  in  no  doubt  of 
her  devotion  and  constancy  to  her  art.  This  was 
AXXE  BRADSTREET  (1G1 3-1072),  commonly  known 
as  the  "  Tenth  Muse,"  from  the  announcement  of 
her  advent  in  that  capacity  on  the  title-page  of  the 
London  edition  of  her  book  of  poems.  Mrs.  Brad- 
street  herself  had  no  part  in  the  assumption  of  this 
lofty  title,  and  it  is  only  right  to  remember  that  she 
constantly  expresses  the  most  humble  opinion  of  her 
work.  Mrs.  Bradstreet  occupied  a  position  of  im 
portance  in  the  colony,  being  the  daughter  of  One 
governor,  Thomas  Bradley,  and  the  wife  of  another. 
While  she  was  not  a  poet  in  any  high  sense,  Mrs. 
Bradstreet  showed  such  a  marked  superiority  to  the 
verse-makers  about  her  that  she  justly  won  a  consid 
erable  local  reputation.  Indeed,  the  great  Cotton 
Mather  asserted  that  her  verses  would  outlast  the 
stateliest  marble,  and  another  writer  declared  that  in 
reading  them  he  was  "  sunk  in  a  sea  of  bliss"  and 
"weltering  in  delight."  In  these  davs  she  has  few 

o  o  */ 

readers  beside  the  critics,  into  whose  hands  she  hoped 
her  book  would  never  come.  Yet  while  our  earliest 
woman  poet  was  not  a  genius,  her  character  and 
abilities  excite  both  admiration  and  interest.  Before 
leaving  England,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  she  seems  to 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  gratifying  her  keen  love  of 


58        INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

reading,  and  throughout  all  her  life  in  the  loneliness 
of  the  crude  Western  colony,  though  checked  by  con 
tinual  ill-health,  and  interrupted  by  the  incessant 
claims  of  her  household  duties,  the  love  of  learning 
did  not  die  out  within  her,  but  she  remained,  in  the 
face  of  every  obstacle,  a  reader,  a  thinker,  and,  in  her 
scanty  leisure,  a  writer  of  prose  and  verse.  To  judge 
her  fairly  we  must  realize  how  distant  she  was  from 
the  great  centers  of  civilization,  and  remember  the 
many  obstacles  she  had  to  overcome.  Born  when 
Shakespeare's  career  was  just  ending  and  Milton 
was  still  in  his  infancy,  the  strictness  of  her  religion 
as  well  as  the  remoteness  of  her  situation  shut  her 
out  from  much  that  was  noblest  and  most  inspiring 
in  the  literature  of  that  golden  time.  Besides  all  this, 
she  was  a  woman,  and,  as  she  writes, 

"  Obnoxious  to  each  carping  tongue, 
Who  says  my  hand  a  needle  better  fits, 
A  poet's  pen  all  scorn  I  should  thus  wrong, 
For  such  despite  they  cast  on  female  wits." 

Yet  in  the  teeth  of  such  discouragement  Anne 
Bradstreet  wrote  the  best  verses  produced  in  New 
England  in  her  time.  Her  works  show  industry, 
careful  reading,  and  a  religious,  thoughtful,  and 
appreciative  mind.  Her  longest,  but  by  no  means 
her  best,  poem  is  The  Four  Monarchies,  a  rhymed  his 
tory  of  Assyria,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome,  based  on 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  History  of  the  World.  In  her 
poem  on  The  Four  Elements,  Earth,  Air,  Fire,  and 
Water  dispute  together  as  to  which  is  the  most  im- 


LITERATURE  IN  THE  COLONIES         59 

portant.*  Another  poem,  the  Four  Seasons,  which 
contains  sundry  practical  and  prosaic  points  about 
agriculture,  seems  a  dim  anticipation  of  Thomson's 
Seasons.  Mrs.  Bradstreet  was  a  great  admirer  of 
Sylvester's  translation  of  a  French  poem  by  Du  Bartas 
called  Divine  Weeks  and  Works,  a  long,  dull  com 
position  much  read  by  the  Puritans  of  that  time. 
She  was  called  by  a  contemporary  "  a  right  Pu 
Bartas's  girl,"  but  such  a  master  was  not  calculated 
to  improve  her  literary  taste.  It  is  in  her  simple  and 
less  bookish  verses  that  she  is  at  her  best.  Her  short 
poem  Contemplations,  in  which  really  admirable 
descriptions  of  nature  are  mingled  with  the  thoughts 
that  they  naturally  suggest  to  her  religious  and 
meditative  mind,  has  a  genuine  poetry  in  it,  absent 
from  her  more  laborious  and  less  unaffected  works. 
But,  on  the  whole,  we  should  honor  and  remember 
Anne  Bradstreet,  not  so  much  for  the  intrinsic  worth 
of  what  she  wrote,  as  for  her  place  in  the  progress  of 
our  history  and  culture.  We  must  honor  her  because 
she  was  one  of  the  first  among  us  to  seriously  devote 
herself  to  poetry  for  its  own  sake,  and  because  her 
writings  and  example  exerted  a  salutary  and  refining 
influence  on  others. 

In  Mrs.  Bradstreet's  Contemplations  we  have  one 
of  the  few  expressions  in  poetry  of  the  gentler  and 
sweeter  element  in  New  England  life,  but  in  MICHAEL 
WIGGLESWOBTH'S  Day  of  Doom,  hard,  dogmatic,  and 

*  Curiously  enough,  this  bears  a  strong  similarity  to  an 
interlude  by  John  Hey  wood  (1506?-1565),  the  Play  of  the 
Weather. 


60        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

inspired  with  a  fierce  religious  zeal,  the  sterner  and 

more  familiar  aspect  of  that  life  is  mani- 
Michael 

Wiggles-  fested  in  all  its  crude  and  uncompromising 
worth.  severity.  Wigglesworth's life  and  character 

seem  to  have  little  in  common  with  his  terrible  utter 
ances.  Like  so  many  New  England  writers,  he  was  a 
clergyman,  and,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  gentle  and 
kindly.  His  health  was  delicate,  but,  in  spite  of  his 
feeble  body,  he  was  full  of  a  consuming  energy  in 
good  works.  Cotton  Mather  describes  him  in  his  old 
age  as  "a  little,  feeble  shadow  of  a  man,  beyond 
seventy,  preaching  usually  twice  or  thrice  in  the  week, 
visiting  and  comforting  the  afflicted,  and  attending  to 
the  sick,  not  only  in  his  own  town,  but  also  in  all 
those  of  the  vicinity."  Perhaps  his  love  and  devo 
tion  made  him  feel  all  the  more  strongly  the  terrors  of 
that  Day  of  Judgment  which  his  best-known  poem 
describes.  Its  rough,  doggerel  verse  is  lurid  with 
graphic  and  almost  exultant  descriptions  of  the  eternal 
tortures  of  the  wicked,  a  theme  which  had  attracted 
the  genius  of  one  of  the  greatest  poets  and  one  of  the 
greatest  artists  of  the  world.  We  may  doubt  whether 
Dante  in  his  Inferno  or  Michael  Angelo  in  his  Last 
Judgment  had  a  more  intense  belief  in  the  awful 
reality  of  the  scene  they  depicted  than  this  obscure 
New  England  Puritan.  All  was  real  enough  to 
Wigglesworth's  imagination,  but  the  immeasurable 
distance  between  his  halting  verses  and  the  works  of 
the  great  masters  of  whom  we  have  spoken  tells  us 
how  hard  it  was  for  the  New  England  Puritan  to 
master  even  the  alphabet  of  the  poet's  art.  Under 


LITERATURE  IN  THE  COLONIES         61 

the  bine  Italian  skies  the  very  peasant-girls  by  the 
impulse  of  a  poetic  instinct  could  utter  their  loves 
and  longings  in  song;  even  in  mediaeval  Scotland  the 
youths  and  maidens,  dancing  on  the  green  at  twilight, 
could  sing  the  ballad  some  poet  of  the  people  had 
made;  but  in  our  land  it  has  always  been  different, 
and  in  New  England  men  could  preach  or  act, 
but  they  could  not  sing.  So  poor  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth  strove  to  preach  what  it  was  in  his  heart  to  say, 
and  struggled  with  his  halting,  unmanageable  verses 
as  best  he  could.  He  describes  the  Day  of  Judgment 
coming  swiftly  on  a  careless  and  pleasure-loving 
world,  grown  hardened  in  its  sins.  He  tells  of  the 
futile  pleas  of  the  heathen,  and  how  they  are  put  to 
silence ;  of  the  infants  who,  not  elected  to  be  saved, 
are  yet  assigned  "  the  easiest  room  in  hell."  He 
preaches  the  everlasting  physical  torment  of  the 
wicked,  who,  like  the  condemned  in  Dante,  have  no 
hope  of  death. 

"  For  day  and  night  in  their  despight, 
Their  torment's  smoke  ascendeth; 
Their  pain  and  grief  have  no  relief, 
Their  anguish  never  endeth. 
*  *  *  *  * 

"  They  live  to  lie  in  misery, 

And  bear  eternal  wo  ; 
And  live  they  must  while  God  is  just, 
That  He  may  plague  them  so."  * 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  understand  the  spirit  and 
motive  of  such  a  work  unless  we  are  in  sympathy  with 

*  TJie  Day  of  Doom.     Most  of  the  poem  is  given  in  Stedinan 
and  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature,  vol.  ii. 


62        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

those  doctrines  in  which  Wigglesworth  believed.  But 
we  must  remember  that  such  views  were  preached 
Sunday  after  Sunday  from  hundreds  of  pulpits. 
Because  they  were  generally  accepted,  The  Day  of 
Doom  became,  as  Lowell  declared,  the  "  solace  of 
every  fireside,  the  flicker  of  the  pine-knots  by  which 
it  was  conned  perhaps  adding  a  livelier  relish  to  its 
premonitions  of  eternal  combustion."* 

Wigglesworth  was  about  thirty  years  older  than 
Cotton  Mather,  but,  like  Mather,  he  saw  about  him 
signs  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  more  rigid  religious 
rule  of  an  earlier  time,  a  waning  power  of  the  church, 
a  growing  tolerance  which  to  him  foreboded  disaster 
to  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness  which  the  Xew 
England  fathers  had  sacrificed  so  much  to  found. 
We  see  how  sorely  he  felt  these  things  in  another 
poem,  Goers  Controversy  with  New  England,  which 
was  published  in  the  same  year  as  his  Day  of  Doom. 
lie  treats  in  this  less-known  work  of  "  New  England 
planted,  prospered,  declining,  threatened,  punished." 
He  describes  his  country,  once  reclaimed  from  the 
power  of  Satan,  as  slipping  back  into  sin,  and  plagued 
and  rebuked  by  God  for  its  offences.  If  we  would  be 
just  to  Wigglesworth  and  others  like  him,  we  must 
remember  that  it  is  much  easier  for  us  to  condemn  his 
manner  and  intolerance  than  to  understand  the  spirit 
of  the  time  in  which  he  lived  and  the  motives  which 
prompted  his  work.  It  seems  likely  that  his  convic 
tion  of  the  growing  carelessness  and  wickedness  of  the 
time  gave  an  added  zest  and  fierceness  to  his  picture 
*  The  Harvard  13  wk,  vol.  ii.  p.  158. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    COLONIES  63 

of  the  eternal  retribution.  About  him  New  England 
seemed,  to  his  eyes,  becoming  faithless  to  her  high 
calling,  while  in  Old  England  the  rule  of  the  Puritan 
had  recently  been  overturned,  to  give  place  to  the 
profligate  levity  of  the  court  of  the  second  Charles. 
He  had  the  almost  fanatical  intensity,  the  rigorous 
creed  of  his  colony  and  his  time;  we  can  hardly 
wonder  that,  gentle  and  loving  as  he  was,  he  taxed 
the  slender  resources  of  his  uncouth  verse  with  terri 
ble  warnings  of  the  wrath  that  should  suddenly  over 
take  the  children  of  disobedience. 

AVe  find  the  same  strange  contrast  between  the  life 
and  works  of  JONATHAN  EDWARDS  (1703-1758),  by  far 
the  most  acute,  laborious,  and  distinguished  thinker 
that  Colonial  New  England  produced. 

Born  in  East  Windsor,  Connecticut,  where    Jonathan 

Edwards, 
his  father  Avas  pastor,  Edwards  gave  early 

promise  of  extraordinary  mental  power  and  of  a  deep 
spirituality  of  nature.  The  outward  course  of  his  life 
was  not  materially  different  from  that  of  many  of  his 
brother  ministers.  Pure,  laborious,  lofty,  and  de 
voted,  it  was  the  life  of  the  thinker  and  the  student, 
full  of  high  aims,  if  inclined  to  be  morbidly  con 
scientious,  over-precise,  and  austere.  Edwards  was 
tall  and  slender,  and,  like  Wigglesworth,  of  delicate 
constitution.  His  face — if  we  may  judge  from  his 
portrait,  with  its  high  forehead,  mild,  meditative 
eyes,  and  almost  womanly  sweetness  of  expression — is 
that  of  the  saint  and  scholar  who  has  lived  apart  from 
the  vulgar  aims  and  contentions  of  ordinary  men. 
He  was  subject  to  low  spirits,  but,  with  a  wonderful 


64        INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

capacity  for  sustained  intellectual  exertion,  he  found 
the  keenest  pleasure  in  working  out  some  intricate 
process  of  reasoning  through  long  hours  of  solitary 
toil.  Many  elements  of  early  New  England  life  and 
thought  meet  in  him:  indeed,  it  is  because  he  repre 
sents  so  perfectly  the  different  aspects  of  that  life 
that  he  seems  full  of  contradictions  which  we  find  it 
hard  or  impossible  to  reconcile.  He  has  to  an  extra 
ordinary  degree  that  high  spirituality  and  beautiful 
serenity,  that  touch  of  true  poetic  sentiment,  often 
buried  out  of  sight  or  sternly  repressed,  which  were 
among  the  noblest  attributes  of  the  Puritan  temper. 
lie  has  the  old  Hebraic  joy  in  the  presence  of  God; 
and  he  believes  that  "  a  divine,  supernatural  light  is 
immediately  imparted  to  the  soul  by  God's  Spirit." 
Even  in  his  youth,  while  walking  "  for  contempla 
tion  "  in  a  solitary  place  in  his  father's  pastures,  his 
soul  is  filled  with  high  and  holy  thought.  "  And  as 
I  was  walking  there,"  he  writes,  "  and  looking  upon 
the  sky  and  the  clouds,  there  came  into  my  mind  so 
sweet  a  sense  of  the  glorious  majesty  and  grace  of  God 
as  I  know  not  how  to  express.  .  .  .  After  this  my 
sense  of  divine  things  gradually  increased,  and  became 
more  and  more  lively,  and  had  more  and  more  of  that 
inward  sweetness.  The  appearance  of  everything  was 
altered;  there  seemed  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  calm,  sweet 
cast,  an  appearance  of  divine  glory  in  almost  every 
thing;  God's  excellency,  His  wisdom,  His  purity  and 
love  seemed  to  appear  in  everything — in  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars;  in  the  clouds  and  the  blue  sky;  in 


LITERATURE    IN    THE    COLONIES  65 

the  grass,  flowers,  trees ;  in  the  water  and  all  nature 
— which  used  greatly  to  fix  my  mind."  * 

Through  the  quiet  loveliness  of  this  passage  we  feel 
that  we  are  looking  into  the  clear  and  tranquil  depths 
of  a  transparently  beautiful  nature.  The  shy  spirit 
of  poetry  is  shown,  too,  in  his  description  of  Sarah 
Pierrepont,  whom  he  afterwards  married:  "  She  will 
sometimes  go  about  from  place  to  place,  singing 
sweetly ;  and  seems  to  be  always  full  of  joy  and  plea 
sure  ;  and  no  one  knows  for  what.  She  loves  to  be 
alone,  walking  in  the  fields  and  groves,  and  seems 
to  have  some  one  invisible  always  conversing  with 
her.  "f  Yet  Edwards's  nature  was  steeped  in  that 
Calvinistic  theology  in  which  he  had  been  reared — a 
creed  which  held  that  the  mass  of  men  were  irretriev 
ably  doomed  to  everlasting  and  unspeakable  agonies 
by  what  Edwards  himself  called  the  "  revenging  jus 
tice  of  God."  His  famous  sermon,  Sinners  in  the 
Hands  of  an  Angry  God,  if  possible  more  terrible  and 
unsparing  than  its  poetic  counterpart,  The  Day  of 
Doom,  filled  even  a  Puritan  congregation  with  awe  and 
trembling.  Edwards  loved  to  dwell  on  man's  in 
herent  vileness  and  wickedness ;  he  was  accustomed  to 
speak  of  his  fellow-creatures,  not  as  the  children  of 
God,  but  as  loathsome  worms  and  vipers.  To  the  ser 
vice  of  Calvinism  Edwards  brought  logical  powers  of  a 
high  order,  and  an  ideal  and  philosophic  tempera- 

*  Stedman  and  Hutcliinson's  Library  of  American  Literature, 
vol.  ii.  p.  374. 
\lbid.,  p.  382. 


66        IXTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

ment,  so  that  he  seems  to  us  both  the  sectarian  contro 
versialist  and  the  metaphysician.  This  is  the  case  in 
his  most  famous  work,  his  essay  On  the  Freedom  of  tlie 
Will,  which  won  for  him  a  high  place  among  the  lead 
ing  minds  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  exerted  a 
considerable  influence,  not  only  on  American,  but  also 
on  Scotch  and  English  thought.  To  Edwards  as  a 
theologian  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  human  will 
seemed  incompatible  with  the  supreme  power  or 
sovereignty  of  God  as  the  moral  ruler  of  the  world, 
and  in  this  essay  he  has  put  forth  his  splendid  powers 
of  argument  to  disprove  the  absolute  freedom  of  our 
wills.  Everything,  he  argues,  has  a  cause,  and  we 
choose  one  thing  in  preference  to  another  because  we 
are  led  to  do  so  by  oar  strongest  motive.  The  will, 
being  determined  by  the  strongest  motive,  is  not  free. 
While  Edwards's  conclusions  are  not  now  generally 
accepted,  his  book  holds  an  honored  place  in  the  his 
tory  of  philosophy,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  first 
really  great  and  permanent  contribution  of  America 
to  the  thought  of  the  world. 

With  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  greatest  exponent  of 
its  thought  and  character,  we  close  our  survey  of  the 
literature  of  Colonial  New  England.  He  represents 
both  its  strength  and  its  weakness;  its  gloomy,  in 
exorable  creed,  and  its  zeal  for  righteousness  and 
passion  for  abstract  thought.  He  is  both  the  spiritual 
descendant  of  Cotton  Mather  and  of  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  and  the  spiritual  ancestor  of  Dr.  Channing, 
the  great  leader  of  New  England  Unitarianism, 
and  of  Emerson,  the  thinker  of  later  times.  He 


LITERATURE   IK   THE    COLONIES  G7 

stands  the  inheritor  of  the  old,  which,  even  in  his 
day  was  passing,  and  the  forerunner  of  new  develop 
ments  to  come. 

THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    MIDDLE    COLONIES 

In  approaching  the  literature  of  the  Middle  Colonies 
we  feel  that  we  have  passed  out  of  the  sombre  shadows 
of  Puritanism  into  a  lighter  if  less  stimulating  region. 
"We  miss  those  strong  incentives  to  learning, — the 
keen  and  enthusiastic  interest  in  questions  of  theology, 
and  the  commanding  position  given  to  the  ministers; 
yet  literature,  if  less  earnest,  is  also  less  sectarian, 
more  polished,  and  more  open  to  the  influence  of  for 
eign  models.  Apart  from  this,  we  recognize  a  general 
similarity  to  a  large  class  of  writings  already  alluded 
to  in  the  Colonies  of  New  England  and  the  South. 
In  this  midland  belt,  as  elsewhere,  there  are  books 
and  pamphlets  descriptive  of  the  country,  such  as 
Daniel  Dentou's  Brief  Description  of  New  York 
(1670),  and  Gabriel  Thomas's  Historical  and  Geo 
graphical  Account  of  the  Province  and  County  of 
Pennsylvania  and  West  New  Jersey  (1698) ;  there  are 
local  histories  and  narratives  of  adventure,  as  that 
singularly  touching  and  graphic  account  of  his  wan 
derings  given  by  the  Quaker  Jonathan  Dickenson  in 
his  GoiTs  Protective  Providence  Man^s  Surest  Help 
and  Defence  (1696).  A  careful  English  student  of  the 
United  States  has  pronounced  Pennsylvania  "  the 
most  remarkable  of  all  the  Colonies  after  the  New 
England  group  ";  and  so  far  as  the  scattered  begin- 


68        INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

nings  of  literature  in  this  central  section  had  any  in 
tellectual  center,  it  is  to  be  found  in  Pennsylvania's 
largest  and  most  important  city.  Indeed,  Philadel 
phia's  progress  in  education  and  culture  was  relatively 
more  rapid  than  that  of  New  England,  for  while  New 
England  was  first  in  these  respects  in  actual  time,  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims  was  about  half  a  century  earlier 
than  that  of  Penn.  Within  a  few  years  after  the 
foundation  of  the  city,  Philadelphia  could  boast  of 
scholars  and  scientists  whose  high  attainments  and 
broad  culture  had  won  them  European  distinction. 
Among  them  was  JAMES  LOGAN,  who  came  with  Penn 
in  1699,  a  man  of  generous  scholarship  and  scientific 
tastes.  Besides  writing  a  number  of  Latin  essays  on 
scientific  subjects,  Logan  translated  Cato's  Distiches 
(1735),  and  Cicero's  De  Senectute  (1744),  the  former 
probably  the  first  translation  of  a  classic  both  made 
and  published  in  America.  Another  man  of  learning 
was  GEORGE  KEITH,  who  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1689, 
and  who  was  spoken  of  by  a  contemporary  English 
writer  as  "  the  most  learned  man  in  the  Quaker  sect, 
well- versed  in  the  Oriental  tongues  and  in  philosophy 
and  mathematics. "  *  A  remarkable  group  of  men 
bears  witness  to  the  city's  early  preeminence  in  science. 
In  JOHN  BARTRAM  (1699-1777)  Pennsylvania  pro 
duced  a  scientist  that  Linnasus,  the  great  Swedish  nat 
uralist,  pronounced  "  the  greatest  natural  botanist  in 
the  world."  Bar  tram  made  important  contributions 
to  his  chosen  science,  and  founded  near  Philadelphia 

*  Burnet's  History  of  My  Oicn  Times,  vol.  ii.  p.  248. 


LITERATURE   IN   THK   COLONIES  G9 

the  first  botanic  garden  in  this  country.  DAVID  RIT- 
TEX  HOUSE,  the  astronomer  and  mathematician,  and 
THOMAS  GODFREY,  who  invented  the  quadrant,  were 
among  the  other  Philadelphians  of  scientific  distinc 
tion.  Such  men,  with  others  of  hardly  less  note, 
point  to  the  presence  in  early  Philadelphia  of  wide 
intellectual  interests  and  solid  acquirements. 

In  the  field  of  pure  literature  the  city  cannot  be 
said  to  have  accomplished  as  much  as  in  science,  yet 

it   produced  a  number  of  versifiers  who    . 

Poetry  in 
wrote  with  smoothness  and  apparent  ease.    Phiiadel- 


Their  work  is  almost  entirely  an  imitation 
of  the  accepted  English  models,  and  shows  but  little 
original  thought  or  spontaneous  poetic  feeling.  In 
the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  Pope  had 
brought  the  flowing  and  monotonous  cadence  of  the 
heroic  verse  to  a  wonderful  excellence.  This  verse 
was  immensely  popular,  to  the  comparative  neglect  of 
other  forms,  and  it  possessed  the  additional  attrac 
tion  of  being  easily  imitated.*  As  we  glance  over  the 
fugitive  verses  scattered  through  the  American  maga 
zines  of  the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  we  come 
upon  many  an  obscure  reproduction  of  the  trick  of 
Pope's  manner,  or,  less  often,  of  that  of  some  other 
English  master.  The  somewhat  frigid  but  resound 
ing  odes  of  Uryden,  Thomson's  Seasons,  Gray's  Elegy, 
or  the  minor  poems  of  Milton,  —  such  have  been  the 
evident  models  for  some  obscure  or  nameless  copyist. 


*  See  Macaulay's  remarks  on  tins   point  in  his   Essay  on 
Addison. 


70        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Of  little  or  no  value  as  poetry,  these  verses  bear  con 
clusive  witness  to  the  origin  of  much  of  our  early 
American  verse.  Perhaps  no  English  original  can 
be  held  responsible  for  the  discordant  notes  of  The 
Bay  Psalm  Book  or  The  Day  of  Doom,  but  as  our 
verse  becomes  smoother  and  more  finished  it  is 
evidently  but  a  provincial  echo,  a  following  of  the 
literary  mode  of  London  in  a  distant  part  of  the 
English  sovereign's  domain.  But  if  such  a  fact 
impresses  us  with  our  intellectual  dependence  on 
England, — and  this,  we  must  remember,  was  only 
natural  under  the  existing  conditions, — it  should  also 
lead  us  to  reflect  that  some  Americans,  at  least,  Avere 
eagerly  familiarizing  themselves  with  the  best  English 
classic  poets  when  demands  on  their  time  and  ener 
gies  in  purely  material  directions  were  pressing  and 
incessant.  A  good  instance  of  the  imitative  qualities 
of  this  verse,  as  well  as  of  the  real  appreciation  and 
reading  which  it  implied,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Phila 
delphia  poet  THOMAS  GODFREY  (1736-1763),  the  son 
of  the  inventor  of  the  quadrant,  already  mentioned. 
Godfrey  seems  to  have  had  no  direct  educational 
advantages  beyond  "a  common  education  in  his 
mother  tongue. ' '  After  leaving  school  he  was  appren 
ticed  to  a  watchmaker,  and  in  1758  was  engaged  in 
the  expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne,  but,  limited 
as  were  his  opportunities,  his  interest  and  aspiration 
lay  in  the  direction  of  painting  and  poetry.  In  1758 
he  published  a  lyric  in  The  American  Magazine,  and 
rapidly  won  his  way  in  the  public  favor.  He  died  of 
a  fever  contracted  in  the  South,  at  the  early  age  of 


LITERATURE   IN    THE   COLONIES  71 

twenty-seven.  If  we  consider  the  circumstances 
under  which  Godfrey  wrote,  and  remember  the  general 
character  of  our  Colonial  verse,  we  cannot  but  be  im 
pressed  with  the  surprisingly  high  average  to  which 
his  poetry  attains.  His  poems  indeed  have  but  little 
positive  merit,  for,  like  all  imitative  verse,  they  do 
little  but  remind  us  of  some  masterpiece.  They  are 
crude  in  places,  and  often  distinctly  juvenile,  yet 
their  place  in  the  history  of  oar  literature  makes  them 
both  interesting  and  important.  The  youthful  efforts 
of  this  glazier's  son  and  watchmaker's  apprentice 
show  an  acquaintance  with  English  poetry  greatly  in 
advance  of  that  of  the  early  rhymesters  of  New 
England.  Here  are  pastorals  after  the  style  of  Pope, 
lyrics  which  recall  Wither  and  his  contemporaries  of 
the  early  seventeenth  century,  and  an  allegoric  poem, 
The  Court  of  Fancy ,  which  is  patterned  on  Chaucer's 
Parliament  of  Foivles.  Some  of  the  stanzas  in  God 
frey's  Court  of  Love,  while  they  recall  the  allegorical 
descriptions  in  Sackville,  Spenser,  or  many  of  the 
earlier  English  poets,  yet  show  genuine  poetic  power. 
Godfrey's  chief  claim  to  be  remembered  is  generally 
thought  to  be  his  blank-verse  tragedy  of  TJie  Prince 
of  Parthia,  the  first  drama  written  in  America.  This 
follows  the  Shakespearean  manner  as  closely  as  the 
author's  powers  will  permit — so  closely,  indeed,  that 
some  passages  are  little  more  than  paraphrases  of 
Julius  Casar,  Hamlet,  and  other  plays;  yet  it  is  not 
wanting  in  touches  of  poetic  power. 

On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  of  this  literature  of 
the  Middle  Colonies,  that  while  it  has  no  such  striking 


72        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

and  original  figures  as  those  of  the  great  Puritan 
Culture  in  commonwealth,  it  shows  a  greater  polish, 
the  Middle  and  a  wider  reading  in  purely  literary 
New  Eng-  directions.  If  it  has  no  Cotton  Mather 
land.  or  Jonathan  Edwards,  it  has  a  better 

balanced  and  perhaps  a  wider  culture  than  is  to  be 
found  in  the  great  Colonies  of  the  North.  Pre 
disposed  by  religious  toleration  to  a  greater  liberty 
of  thought  than  the  iron  fetters  of  Puritanism 
allowed,  the  ideal  State  founded  by  Penn  was  open 
in  its  early  years  to  the  influence  of  the  clever  but 
sceptical  and  unemotional  writings  which  during  the 
later  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries  set 
the  standard  of  English  literary  taste.  This  is  the 
literature  on  which  the  provincial  taste  was  largely 
formed;  this  is  the  literature  that  finds  its  exponent 
in  Benjamin  Franklin. 

STUDY    LIST 
THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 

For  general  view  of  the  subject  see  Kichardson's  American 
Literature  and  Tyler's  American  Literature. 

1.  Captain   John    Smith,    Life    of,    by   Chas.    Dudley 
"Warner  (Holt  &  Co.).     See  also  Henry  Adams'  Historical 
Essays. 

2.  John  Winthrop,  Life  of,  by  Kev.  J.  II.  Twicliell,  in 
Makers  of  America  Series. 

3.  Cotton  Mather.     A  good  Life  is  that  by  Prof.  Barrett 
Wendell  in  Makers  of  America  Series.     See  also  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Cotton  Mather,  by  Rev.  A.  P.  Marvin. 

4.  Jonathan  Edwards,  Life  of,  by  A.  V.  G.  Allen.    See 
also  Holmes's  Essay  on  Edwards   in  Pages  from  an  Old 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   COLONIES  73 

Volume  of  Life.  For  the  philosophy  of  Edwards,  see  G. 
P.  Fisher's  Discussions  in  History  and  Theology. 

Selections  from  the  above  writers  will  be  found  in  Sted- 
man  and  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature. 

5.  History.  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England;  Lodge's 
English  Colonies  in  America;  Doyle's  English  Colonies  in 
America;  Fiske's  Beginnings  of  New  England;  Cooke's 
Virginia,  in  American  Commonwealths  Series  ;  Justin 
Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  vols. 
ii.-iv. ;  Thwaite's  The  Colonies,  in  Epochs  of  American 
History  Series  ;  W.  M.  Sloan's  The  French  War  and  the 
Revolution,  in  the  American  History  Series  ;  T7ie  Colonial 
Era,  by  G.  P.  Fisher,  in  the  same  series,  contains,  in 
addition  to  an  admirable  historical  survey,  a  useful  chap 
ter  on  the  Colonial  literature  ;  Parkman's  series  on  France 
and  England  in  North  America  (in  7  parts,  published 
under  separate  titles).  Also,  the  histories  of  the  United 
States  of  Bancroft  and  Uildreth. 


PART  II 

THE   ESTABLISHMENT   OF  NATIONALITY 
Cir.  1765-011-.   1815 

CHAPTER  I 
THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   NATIONALITY 

THE  prominent  feature  of  our  literature,  during 
the  period  just  sketched,  was  its  lack  of  unity.  The 
Colonies,  distinct  in  origin  and  in  character,  had  a 
spirit  of  local  loyalty  and  pride,  but  no 
feeling  of  a  common  nationality.  De 
Kalrn,  a  Swedish  naturalist  who  visited 
this  country  as  late  as  1748,  commenting  upon  this 
independence  of  the  several  colonies,  remarks  that 
"  each  has  its  proper  laws  and  coin,  and  may  be 
looked  upon  in  several  lights  as  a  State  by  itself."  * 
Besides  all  other  causes  for  this  isolation  of  the 
colonies  from  each  other,  was  the  difficulty  of  com 
munication  in  a  country  so  much  of  which  still  lay 
in  unbroken  forests.  Under  these  conditions,  each 
colony  turned  to  England,  rather  than  to  its  sister 

*  Peter   De    Kalru's    Travels  into  North  America,    vol.    i. 
pp.  262,  263. 

75 


76       INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

settlements,  for  its  material  or  intellectual  supplies. 
Yet  even  from  an  early  period  conditions  were  slowly 
but  steadily  forcing  the  English  in  America  to  a 
closer  union,  and  prompting  them  to  a  concerted 

action.    Except  towards  the  Atlantic,  they 
Progress  L  .  J 

towards  found  themselves  hemmed  in  on  every  side 
by  the  encroachments  of  foreign  rivals. 
Florida  and  the  South  were  in  the  hands  of  Spain, 
while  on  the  far  Northwest  and  West  rose  the  aggres 
sive  and  ambitious  power  of  France,  intent  on  push 
ing  southward  from  the  Great  Lakes  along  the 
Mississippi  valley.  When  the  menace  of  France 
changed  to  actual  conflict,  it  was  but  natural  that  the 
scattered  English  should  draw  closer  together  and 
attempt  some  concerted  action  against  the  common 
danger.  Under  all  the  local  jealousies  and  differences 
between  the  English  colonists  was  the  uniting  force 
of  a  common  interest,  the  deep  instinct  of  kinship, 
the  bond  of  the  one  mother  tongue.  The  great 
struggle  with  France  for  the  mastery  of  the  Xew 
World,  begun  in  1689  and  continued  intermittently 
for  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century,  thus  constantly 
tended  to  compact  the  several  Colonies.  It  was  the 
outbreak  of  this  war  with  France  that  brought  about 
the  first  attempt  at  a  Colonial  Congress  (1090) ;  it  was 
the  renewal  of  this  same  war  in  1754  Avhich  induced 
Franklin  to  offer  a  plan  for  a  permanent  Colonial 
union. 

The  spirit  of  nationality  fought  its  way  slowly, 
indeed,  against  much  stubborn  and  shortsighted  local 
pride.  The  strength  of  this  local  spirit  is  shown  by 


THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    NATIONALITY  77 

the  colonies'  rejection  of  Franklin's  scheme  for  nnion. 
Yet  the  sense  of  nationality  gained  ground,  if  only 
under  the  compulsion  of  war  and  necessity. 

Hardly  was  France  conquered  and  the  English 
supremacy  in  North  America  assured  before  the 
colonies  were  involved  in  new  dangers,  which  impelled 
them  yet  more  powerfully  towards  union.  In  the 
past,  each  colony  had  been  more  or  less  closely  bound 
to  England.  Virginia,  in  the  early  days,  had  been 
far  more  a  part  of  Old  England  than  of  New.  But 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia — North,  Midland,  and 
South;  Puritan,  Quaker,  and  Cavalier — were  stirred 
to  protest  by  the  same  indignation  against  the  unjust 
exactions  of  the  English  Government.  When  James 
Otis,  a  Boston  lawyer,  argued  in  17G1  against  writs 
of  assistance,*  and  asked  boldly  "  how  far  the  Ameri 
cans  were  bound  to  obey  laws  they  had  no  share  in 
making,"  he  spoke  not  for  Massachusetts  only,  but 
for  the  whole  land.  When,  three  years  later,  he  pub 
lished  his  pamphlet,  The  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies 
Asserted  and  Proved,  he  wrote  for  the  whole  people. 
The  impassioned  eloquence  of  Patrick  Henry  ex 
pressed  the  answering  sentiment  of  Virginia.  Thus 
the  South  joined  hands  with  the  North,  while  the 
North,  on  its  side,  did  not  undervalue  this  bond  of 

*  Writs  of  assistance  were  general  search  warrants,  in  which 
the  custom-house  officer  might  insert  what  names  he  pleased. 
For  report  of  Otis's  argument,  see  John  Adams's  Works,  edited 
by  Chas.  F.  Adams,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix  A;  and  Life  of  James 
Otis,  by  Win.  Tudor,  Jr. .chaps,  v.  and  vi. 


78        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

a  common  cause.  Bernard,  the  governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  declared  that  Henry's  resolutions  in  the 
Virginia  Assembly  against  the  hated  Stamp  Act 
"  rang  the  alarm-bell  to  the  rest  of  America"  (1765). 
We  are  told  that  during  the  general  indignation 
aroused  by  this  injudicious  act,  the  people,  instead  of 
speaking  of  themselves  as  colonists,  began  to  call 
themselves  Americans.  la  the  Middle  Colonies,  the 
Farmer's  Letters  (1767)  of  John  Dickinson  of  Phila 
delphia  echoed  the  patriotic  protest  of  the  South  and 
North.  So  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania 
stood  side  by  side.  Richard  Henry  Lee,  soon  to  be 
distinguished  as  the  mover  of  a  declaration  of  inde 
pendence,  thus  summed  up  the  situation:  "  They 
wish  to  make  us  dependent,  but  they  will  make  us 
independent;  these  oppressions  will  lead  us  to  unite, 
and  thus  secure  our  liberty." 

From  about  1765,  the  year  in  which  an  American 
Congress  met  in  New  York  to  protest  against  the 
Stamp  Act,  the  course  of  our  history  has  been  to 
gradually  diminish  local  jealousies,  and  to  unite 
separate  and  discordant  elements  into  a  single  nation. 
The  slow  approaches  to  this  result  are  matters  of 
familiar  history.  The  heroic  struggle  of  the  Revolu 
tion;  the  unsuccessful  attempt  to  carry  on  the  gov 
ernment  as  a  loose  confederation  of  States;  the 
establishment  of  a  truer  nationality  by  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  (1787) ;  the  patriotic  stimulus 
given  by  our  second  war  for  independence  in  1812; 
the  territorial  expansion  of  the  new  nation;  the  con 
tinued  strengthening  of  the  power  of  the  central 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    NATIONALITY  79 

government, — all  these  familiar  features  of  our  history 
must  be  taken  into  account  if  we  are  to  Effect  of 

appreciate    how   our    national    literature    nati.onahty 

on  htera- 
was  the  natural  outcome  of  our  national    ture. 

life.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  our  national  life 
and  our  national  literature  were  born  together,  and 
that  the  rising  Americanism  found  vent  simultane 
ously  in  men's  deeds  and  words.  From  the  opening 
of  the  Revolution  to  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812, 
when  our  independence  may  be  considered  as  having 
been  permanently  established,  literature  had  its 
especial  and  important  share  in  forwarding  the  attain 
ment  of  that  national  life  which  the  statesman  and 
the  soldier  were  laboring  to  secure.  South  and  North 
the  idea  of  country  grew  in  men's  minds,  bringing 
with  it  a  new  and  passionate  patriotism.  In  the 
agitated  controversies  and  generous  ardor  of  the  time, 
our  literature  first  overstepped  the  limits  of  section, 
and  a  new  era  in  our  literary  history  began. 

There  is  one  man  who  stands  out  prominently  in 
this  era  of  consolidation.  During  the  greater  part  of 
his  life  we  were  still  a  group  of  colonies;  yet  even 
then  he  labored  to  bring  about  a  closer  colonial  union, 
and  in  his  later  years  his  work  for  the  united  nation 
was  the  crowning  achievement  of  his  long  career. 
This  man,  Benjamin  Franklin,  is  so  important  that 
we  must  consider  him  in  a  separate  section. 


SO        INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  (1706-1790) 

Whether  we  approach  him  as  philosopher,  states 
man,    scientist,    philanthropist,    or  man   of  letters, 

Benjamin   Franklin  impresses  us  at  last 
Franklins  x 

place  in  our  not  merely  by  what  he  did,  but  by  what 
history.  jie  wag  jn  himseift  We  feel  his  vigor, 
his  originality  of  mind,  his  enormous  practical  abil 
ity,  his  singularly  diversified  talents,  and  we  are 
impressed  by  the  man  himself  as  much  as  by  his 
useful  and  wonderful  career.  Numberless  pictures 
have  made  his  shrewd  but  kindly  face  familiar  to  us. 
Washington  wore  the  powdered  wig  and  queue  in 
vogue  among  gentlemen  at  that  day,  but  in  the  por 
trait  of  Franklin  the  straight,  thinnish,  gray  hair  is 
brushed  back  from  the  high  forehead  and  undisguised 
by  wig  or  powder.  We  picture  Franklin  in  his  later 
years  as  a  man  of  somewhat  unwieldy  carriage,  sturdy, 
inclined  to  stoutness,  and  with  slightly  stooping 
shoulders,  venerable  and  kind-hearted,  but  not  easy 
to  overreach  in  a  bargain,  and  full  of  a  humorous 
appreciation  of  the  weaknesses  of  others.  Even 
Washington  is  hardly  so  real  and  living  to  us  as  is  this 
Philadelphia  printer.  In  his  humble  origin,  in  the 
oft-told  story  of  his  rise,  through  his  own  push  and 
industry,  from  the  tallow-chandler's  boy  to  the  man 
honored  in  two  continents  and  successful  in  a  hundred 
varied  enterprises,  we  are  fond  of  seeing  the  great 
example  of  our  national  hero,  the  self-made  man.  It 
is  said  to  be  the  highest  merit  of  a  democracy  that  it 
offers  a  free  chance  to  all  the  men  of  ability  in  the 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   NATIONALITY  81 

community  to  turn  their  talents  to  good  use,  and 
Franklin  showed  us  what  a  man  could  do  for  himself 
in  a  free  country  such  as  ours.  "  No  one,"  writes  a 
French  critic,  "  began  lower  than  the  poor  apprentice 
of  Boston;  no  one  raised  himself  higher,  by  his  own 
energy,  than  the  inventor  of  the  lightning-rod;  no  one 
has  rendered  more  splendid  services  to  his  country 
than  the  diplomatist  who  signed  the  peace  of  1783 
and  secured  the  independence  of  the  United  States."  * 

Franklin  occupies  a  large  place  in  a  momentous 
period  of  our  national  history.  His  career  stretches 
over  nearly  the  whole  of  that  century  in  Franklin 
whose  great  events  he  bore  so  large  a  part.  f  ongi?ra 
Born  a  loyal  subject  of  Queen  Anne,  he  dation. 
died  at  eighty-four,  when  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  had  been  adopted,  and  Washington  had 
entered  upon  his  first  presidential  term.  In  his  early 
life  he  spent  his  energies  for  the  English  in  the  con 
test  with  the  French;  in  his  later  years — the  reigning 
sensation  of  Paris  and  the  friend  of  Mirabeau — he 
labored  for  America  against  England  as  writer  and  as 
diplomatist  through  that  "  critical  period  "  when  our 
nation  was  born.  Both  in  our  literature  and  in  our 
history  he  is  thus  identified  with  that  period  of  con 
solidation  at  which  we  have  now  arrived. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  the  son  of  Josiah  Franklin,  a 
soap-boiler  and  tallow-chandler,  was  born  in  Boston, 
Jan.  17,  1700.  On  his  father's  side  he  sprang  from 

*  Memoires  de  Franklin,  ecrit  par  lui-mSme,  traduis  de 
1'Anglais  et  annotes  par  Edouard  Laboulaye,  de  1'Institut  de 
France.  Paris,  1860. 


82        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

a  humble  but  sturdy  stock,  the  Franklins  having 
long  had  a  small  holding  of  land  in 
Franklin's  Northamptonshire,  England.  The  eldest 
son  had  followed  the  trade  of  a  blacksmith 
for  many  generations,  and  the  family  had  been  distin 
guished  by  its  early  Protestantism  and  determined 
independence  of  thought.  On  his  mother's  side 
Franklin  was  descended  from  Peter  Folger,  one  of  the 
early  New  England  settlers,  whom  Mather  describes 
as  "a  learned  and  godly  Englishman."  Franklin 
was  the  youngest  of  a  large  family,  and  although  he 
early  showed  a  great  capacity  for  study,  his  father  was 
forced  to  take  him  from  school  at  the  age  of  ten  and 
set  him  to  work  in  the  shop,  cutting  hides,  filling 
candle-moulds,  and  running  errands.  But  the  boy's 
mind  was  active  and  inquiring;  he  disliked  the  work 
and  found  his  resource  in  books.  "  From  my  in 
fancy,"  he  tells  us  in  his  Autobiography ',  "I  was 
passionately  fond  of  reading."  Most  of  the  handful 
of  books  owned  by  his  father  were  works  of  theologi 
cal  controversy,  congenial  to  the  New  England  mind. 
Franklin  read  the  greater  part  of  them,  but  though 
the  atmosphere  and  traditions  of  Puritan  New 
England  were  all  about  him,  the  instinct  of  his  mind 
and  disposition  led  him  to  escape  into  a  different  air. 
Hard-headed  and  sceptical,  Franklin,  while  born  in 
that  same  New  England  that  brought  forth  the  devout 
and  saintly  mystic  Jonathan  Edwards,  early  showed 
his  sympathy  with  opinions  and  standards  of  life 
and  conduct  then  common  in  England,  but  totally 
opposed  to  the  prevailing  tone  of  his  surroundings.  It 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    NATIONALITY  83 

is  only  by  clearly  understanding  this,  that  we  can 
understand  the  true  significance  of  Franklin's  char 
acter  or  of  his  work  as  a  writer.  Thus,  although  as  a 
boy  he  had  but  very  little  to  spend  on  books,  and 
although  but  few  of  the  contemporary  English  classics 
had  then  found  their  way  to  New  England,  it  was  the 
study  of  the  leading  English  writers  of  the  early 
eighteenth  century,  and  not  of  Wigglesworth  or 
Cotton  Mather,  that  formed  his  literary  style,  helped 
to  direct  his  thought  and  taste,  and  left  a  lasting  im 
press  upon  his  religious  views.  The  first  books  he 
bought  were  the  works  of  Bunyan,  and  in  his  Auto- 
Mography  he  speaks  affectionately  of  Bunyan  as 
"honest  John,"  and  calls  him  "my  old  favorite 
author."*  One  of  the  greatest  living  prose-writers 
of  England  during  Franklin's  youth  was  Joseph 
Addison,  whose  light  and  graceful  style  was  for  years 
the  model  of  many  English  authors.  Addison  wrote 
a  number  of  essays  for  The  Spectator  (1712-13),  a 
periodical  then  very  popular  in  England.  A  stray 
copy  of  The  Spectator  having  fallen  in  Franklin's 
way,  he  "  gave  his  days  and  nights  to  the  study 
of  Addison,"  and,  to  improve  himself  in  writing, 
endeavored  to  reproduce  the  essays  in  his  own  words, 
correcting  his  work  by  a  comparison  witli  the  original. 
But  this  English  influence  on  Franklin  went  even 
deeper.  Puritanism  still  controlled  New  England, 
but  in  the  mother  country  its  force  had  long  been 
spent,  and  England  was  passing  through  a  period  of 

*  Autobiography,  chap,  i  and  chap,  ii. 


84        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

unbelief.  The  church  was  "worldly  and  indifferent, 
the  nation  lacking  in  enthusiasm  and  living  faith.  It 
was  an  age  of  reason,  not  of  feeling,  and  many 
prominent  writers  were  attacking  the  foundations  of 
belief.  The  works  of  two  of  these  sceptical  writers, 
Anthony  Collins  and  Lord  Shaftesbury,  came  in  Frank 
lin's  way,  and  helped  to  unsettle  his  religious  views. 
He  was  scarce  fifteen  when,  after  doubting  on  many 
points,  he  "  began  to  doubt  even  of  Revelation 
itself."*  Thus  both  the  literary  style  and  the 
sceptical  thought  of  the  England  of  Queen  Anne 
were  a  directing  and  controlling  influence  on  his  life 
and  thought. 

Meanwhile,  Franklin  had  been  apprenticed  to  his 
brother  James,  who  was  a  printer.  James  published 
and  edited  a  newspaper,  The  A'cw  England  Courant^ 
to  which  Benjamin,  then  about  fifteen,  became  an 
anonymous  contributor.  Having  quarrelled  with  his 
brother,  a  man  of  violent  temper,  Franklin  came  to 
Philadelphia,  resolved  to  push  his  way  unaided. 
Here  he  landed,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  tired,  hungry, 
and  friendless,  his  whole  stock  of  cash  "  a  single 
dollar,  and  about  a  shilling  in  copper  coin."  But  he 
had  in  himself  the  elements  of  success — health,  youth, 
industry,  business  ability,  and  a  shrewd  eye  to  his 
own  interests.  The  familiar  story  of  his  rise  need  not 
be  retold  here;  we  must  note,  however,  that  by  a 
stay  of  some  eighteen  months  in  London,  when 
Franklin  was  about  eighteen,  he  was  brought  into 

*  Autobiography. 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    NATIONALITY  85 

direct  contact  with  that  contemporary  English  life 
and  thought  which  he  had  already  known  through  the 
medium  of  books.  While  in  London  he  wrote  a 
pamphlet  hostile  to  religion, — the  publication  of 
which  he  afterwards  regretted, — and  through  it  met 
some  of  the  sceptical  writers  of  the  day.  Among 
others,  he  was  introduced  to  Bertram!  Mandeville,  the 
author  of  a  cynical  book  called  The  Fable  of  the  Bees, 
at  a  pale-ale  house  in  Cheapside. 

Franklin  returned  to  Philadelphia  in  1726,  estab 
lished  himself  as  a  printer,  and  in  1729  became  the 
proprietor  and  publisher  of  a  newspaper  called  The 
Pennsylvania  Gazette.  Shortly  before  this  (1728) 
he  had  begun  The  Busybody  Papers,  a  series  of 
short,  moral  essays  which  are  evidently  the  result 
of  his  early  study  of  The  Spectator.  In  these  papers 
he  comes  before  us,  after  the  manner  of  Addison,  as 
a  censor  of  morals,  and  aims  to  hold  up  to  ridicule 
certain  follies  of  the  time  by  exhibiting  them  in  the 
person  of  some  imaginary  characters.  The  methods 
of  Franklin's  great  model  are  closely  imitated,  but  the 
personages  are  slightly  sketched,  conventional,  and 
lifeless,  and  we  miss  the  genial  warmth  and  exquisite 
grace  of  the  original. 

From  this  time  Franklin,  by  his  public  spirit, 
energy,  attention  to  detail,  and  wonderful  breadth  of 
interest,  became  more  and  more  a  force  in  the  com 
munity.  He  labored  not  only  for  his  own  generation, 
but  for  posterity.  He  established  a  debating  club 
called  the  Junto,  which  developed  into  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  an  organization  of  more  than 


86        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

national  celebrity;  he  founded  the  Philadelphia 
Library,  "  the  mother,"  as  he  says,  "  of  all  the  North 
American  subscription  libraries;"  he  was  instrumental 
in  starting  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Equally 
busy  in  other  directions,  he  invented  the  open  stove, 
still  called  by  his  name,  and  in  his  famous  experiment 
with  the  kite  he  "  called  down  the  lightning  from 
heaven."  Made  Postmaster-General  in  1753,  he 
greatly  improved  the  postal  system,  and  succeeded  in 
making  it  not  only  efficient,  but  profitable.  In  1757 
Franklin  was  again  in  England,  as  commissioner  from 
Pennsylvania,  and  this  time  remained  for  five  years, 
meeting  Hume  and  Eobertson,  the  distinguished  his 
torians,  and  many  other  eminent  persons.  Franklin 
returned  to  England  in  17G5  as  agent  for  Pennsyl 
vania  in  matters  relating  to  that  province,  but  the 
relations  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Colonies  were 
growing  difficult  and  alarming,  and  his  mission  grew 
to  one  of  a  wider  character. 

In  1776,  after  a  short  stay  in  America,  Franklin 
was  sent  to  France  as  Ambassador  of  the  United 
States,  where  he  won  social  as  well  as  political  suc 
cesses  which  are  among  the  most  striking  incidents  of 
his  wonderful  career.  In  the  midst  of  the  airy 
gallantries  of  the  French  court,  or  all  the  strange  life 
of  old-world  Paris,  Franklin,  with  his  shaggy  cap  of 
marten's  fur,  his  simple  dress,  his  homely  wit,  moved 
in  his  unadorned  and  solid  manhood,  the  representa 
tive,  even  to  many  of  the  Parisians,  of  a  better  order 
of  things. 

After  performing  the  most  signal  public  services, 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    NATIONALITY  87 

Franklin,  old,  ill,  and  weary,  returned  to  Philadelphia 
in  1785.  Here  he  lingered  for  five  years,  loved  and 
honored,  still  active  in  doing  good,  so  far  as  his  fail 
ing  strength  permitted,  until  the  last.  He  died  at 
the  age  of  eighty-four,  on  the  17th  of  July,  1790. 

Franklin  was  a  voluminous  and  no  doubt  a  rapid 
writer,  as  his  collected  works  fill  ten  large  volumes, 

but  the  incessant  demands  upon  his  time    . 

Franklin  as 

and  energy  left  him  little  opportunity  to  a  man  of 
devote  himself  to  literature  for.  its  own  letters- 
sake.  During  his  long  and  busy  life  his  pen  was 
seldom  idle,  but  writing  with  him  was  usually  but  the 
means  to  an  end,  a  convenient  aid  to  the  accomplish 
ment  of  some  definite  project.  Thus  a  large  propor 
tion  of  his  published  work  consists  of  letters,  in 
which,  in  his  clear,  business-like,  and  sensible  way,  he 
touches  on  many  subjects, — science,  inventions,  books, 
and  current  politics, — and  so  unconsciously  gives  us  a 
glimpse  into  his  alert  and  eager  mind.  But  work 
thus  written  for  a  specific  purpose,  while  interesting 
historically,  or  for  the  knowledge  it  gives  us  of  its 
author,  naturally  suffers  from  its  temporary  character, 
and  can  seldom  take  its  place  as  pure  literature. 

Franklin's  reputation  as  a  writer  rests  mainly  on  his 
Autobiography,  which  has  been  called  "  the  corner 
stone  of  American  Literature,"  his  Almanac,  and  a 
few  of  his  shorter  pieces.  Poor  Richard's  Almanac 
was  one  of  Franklin's  great  business  successes,  and  is 
probably  the  most  famous  example  of  the  unambitious 
class  of  writing  to  which  it  belongs.  It  was  begun 
in  1732,  and  continued  for  twenty-five  years,  soon 


88        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

reaching  a  circulation,  remarkable  for  those  days,  of 
ten  thousand  copies.  In  it  Franklin  speaks  through 
the  mouth  of  an  imaginary  character,"  Poor  Richard," 
or  "  Mr.  Richard  Saunders,"  who  is  supposed  to  be 
the  compiler.  "Poor  Eichard  "  represents  himself 
as  always  star-gazing,  and  tells  us  that  he  went  into 
the  enterprise  because  his  wife  Bridget  threatened 
to  burn  his  books  and  instruments  if  he  did  not 
make  some  money  by  his  learning.  In  the  pages  of 
his  Almanac  Franklin,  under  the  guise  of  "  Poor 
Richard,"  printed  year  after  year  those  familial- 
proverbs,  sometimes  original  and  sometimes  selected, 
which  he  apparently  regarded  as  the  best  practical 
rules  for  the  conduct  of  life.  Through  these  homely 
sayings,  so  short  as  to  be  easily  remembered,  and  so 
associated  with  some  familiar  experience  that  they 
reached  the  dullest  intelligence,  he  preached  his  car 
dinal  doctrine  of  industry  and  frugality  as  the  way 
to  wealth.  Such  writing  may  not  be  literature  in  the 
highest  sense,  but  it  shows  us  Franklin ;  for  the  rule  of 
life  which  it  advocates  was  that  which  the  author  had 
long  followed,  and  the  way  to  success  which  it  pointed 
out  was  that  by  which  Franklin's  own  success  had 
been  gained.  Much  as  we  must  admire  Franklin's 
admirable  traits,  we  must  admit  that  in  some  of  the 
highest  qualities  he  was  distinctly  wanting.  The 
absence  of  these  higher  qualities  is  apparent  in  the 
Almanac,  as  it  is  in  almost  all  that  Franklin  wrote. 
We  see  that  with  him  success,  and  the  laying  up  of 
treasures  upon  earth,  if  not  precisely  the  same  thing, 
are  at  least  very  close  together.  He  tells  us,  indeed, 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   NATIONALITY  89 

that  his  object  is  to  make  people  virtuous,  but  assures 
us  at  the  same  time  that  the  road  to  virtue  lies 
through  the  making  of  money,  "  it  being  more  difficult 
for  a  man  in  want  to  act  honestly,  than — to  use  one 
of  those  proverbs — it  is  '  for  an  empty  sack  to  stand 
upright.'  '  He  urges  us  to  make  money  because,  if 
we  are  prosperous,  people  will  respect  us: 

"  Now  tliat  I  have  a  sheep  and  a  cow, 
Everybody  bids  me  good-morrow." 

lie  declares  that  "  a  ploughman  on  his  legs  is  higher 
than  a  gentleman  on  his  knees." 

Franklin's  object  was  simply  to  give  some  practical 
help  to  plain  people,  and  in  a  limited  sense  his  doc 
trines  and  advice  are  sound.  But  from  the  highest 
point  of  view,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  general 
tone  of  his  teaching  is  mercenary  and  worldly.  The 
exclusive  devotion  to  money-making  tends  to  the 
debasement  of  character ;  nor  is  the  court  which  the 
vulgar  pay  to  wealth  a  sufficient  reason  for  concentrat 
ing  one's  energies  on  its  acquisition.  Moreover,  if 
Franklin  preached  wealth  as  the  way  to  virtue,  he  was 
not  insensible  to  the  advantages  of  virtue  as  a  Avay  to 
wealth.  While  the  highest  natures  are  transported 
with  a  passion  for  the  beauty  of  holiness,  Franklin  has 
a  tradesman's  eye  for  its  market  value.  "  Nothing," 
he  writes  on  the  margin  of  his  Autobiography  ^  "  noth 
ing  is  so  likely  to  make  a  man's  fortune  as  virtue." 

The  Autobiography  is  Franklin's  most  important 
contribution  to  literature.  It  is  unfinished,  coming 
down  only  to  1757,  the  year  of  Franklin's  second 


90        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

visit  to  England.  Written  in  the  strong,  clear, 
almost  matter-of-fact  style  which  was  characteristic  of 
the  man,  the  book  retains  an  indescribable  freshness 
and  fascination.  Unlike  many  autobiographies,  it 
has  no  posing  for  effect;  it  is  the  direct  and  simple 
record  of  a  remarkable  and  wonderfully  useful  life. 
But  it  is  even  more  than  this.  Few  characters  in  the 
entire  range  of  fiction  are  more  memorable  or  more 
suggestive  than  that  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  in 
the  transparent  prose  of  his  Autobiography  Franklin 
has  half  unconsciously  given  us  a  character-study 
which  the  greatest  novelist  or  poet  would  find  it  hard 
to  surpass.  Certain  faults  or  mistakes  are  quietly  noted 
and  regretted,  but  the  pervading  tone  is  one  of  com 
placent  satisfaction,  and  a  willingness  is  expressed  "  to 
go  over  the  same  life  from  its  beginning  to  the  end." 
Franklin  is  often  spoken  of  as  a  typical  American, 
the  representative  of  that  utilitarian  and  money- 
making  spirit  supposed  to  be  our  leading 

Franklin's  national  trait.  A  Scotch  critic  calls  him 
character. 

"  the  most  practical   of  philosophers,  in 

perhaps  the  most  practical  of  nations";  Jefferson 
Davis  sees  in  him  the  embodiment,  not  of  the  nation, 
but  of  New  England,  and  sneers  at  him  as  "  the 
incarnation  of  the  peddling,  tuppenny  Yankee."* 
Both  views  are  not  only  exaggerated  and  unjust :  they 
are  based  upon  a  total  misunderstanding  of  Franklin's 
real  relation  to  his  age.  In  his  public  career  Franklin 
was  a  typical  American  patriot,  rightly  placed  beside 

*  Quoted  by  G.  W.  Curtis  in  Harper's  Magazine,  July,  1868, 
p.  274. 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OP   NATIONALITY  91 

Washington  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic; 
but  in  his  character,  his  writings,  his  whole  tone  of 
mind  and  thought,  lie  belonged  not  to  America,  but 
to  the  England  of  Shaftesbury,  Addisou,  and  Pope. 
In  his  scepticism,  his  cool  common-sense,  his  scientific 
and  intensely  practical  cast  of  mind,  he  is  distinctly 
the  child  of  Old  England  rather  than  of  Xew. 
Franklin's  unemotional,  unideal  temperament  had 
absolutely  nothing  in  common  with  the  sombre  fanati 
cism,  the  spirituality  of  the  New  England  which  shone 
through  his  great  contemporary,  Jonathan  Edwards. 
Early  affected  by  English  books,  and  a  resident  for 
years  in  the  great  center  of  English  life  and  thought, 
in  his  literary  style  as  in  his  opinions  he  is  an 
Englishman  of  the  age  of  frigid  poetry,  shallow 
irreligion,  and  the  glorification  of  good  sense.  In 
reading  Franklin's  works  confirmations  of  the  cor 
rectness  of  this  view  continually  present  themselves. 
Thus  the  tone  and  moral  of  the  Ephemera,  one  of  the 
best  of  his  short  pieces,  in  its  allegorical  picture  of  the 
infinite  littleness  and  insignificance  of  mankind,  are 
identical  with  the  favorite  attitude  of  Pope  and  Swift. 
Franklin,  reaching  here  a  higher  elevation  than  he 
commonly  attains,  points  to  the  little  lives  of  men 
with  the  same  contemptuous  scorn  as  that  manifest 
in  Gullivers  Travels  or  veiled  under  the  smooth 
phrases  of  the  Essay  on  Man. 

Thus  Franklin,  to  be  really  understood,  must  be 
seen  from  many  sides.  Author  of  one  of  the  first 
really  notable  American  books,  he  stands  both  for  our 
intellectual  nearness  to  England  and  our  political 


92        INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

severance  from  England.  We  are  tempted  to  admire 
either  too  much  or  too  little.  If  he  was  one  of  the 
least  spiritual,  he  was  one  of  the  most  incessantly  and 
substantially  useful  of  all  great  men,  and  while  litera 
ture  with  him  was  but  a  side  issue,  he  holds  in  our 
literary  history  a  unique  and  by  no  means  unimpor 
tant  place. 

STUDY  LIST 
FRANKLIN 

1.  Franklin's  chief  claim  to  literary  distinction  rests  upon 
his   Autobiography.     The  best  edition  is  that  edited   by 
John  Bigelow.     There  is  a  condensed  edition  in  the  River 
side  Literature  Series.     Another  number  of  the  series  con 
tains  selections  from  the  writings  of  Franklin,  including 
Poor  Richard's  Almanac.     The  Autobiography  is  also  in 
cluded  in  Cassell's  National  Library. 

2.  Biography  and  Criticism.     For  a  complete  list  of 
writings  on  and  about  Franklin,  see  Paul  Leicester  Ford's 
Tlie  Franklin  Bibliography.    Life  of,  by  James  Parton  ;  by 
Prof.  J.  B.  McMaster,  in  American  Men  of  Letters  Series  ; 
by  J.  T.  Morse,  Jun.,  in  American  Statesmen  Series.     See 
also  Saint  e-Beuve's  article  on  Benjamin  Franklin  in  English 
Portraits. 

ORATORS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

As  we  should  expect,  the  writings  of  this  period  of 
growing  nationality  are  largely  of  a  political  and 
patriotic  character.  Much  intellectual  power  was  put 
into  oratory,  a  form  of  literature  of  peculiar  impor 
tance  in  a  democracy,  and  one  likely  to  be  developed  in 
the  stress  of  action  and  controversy.  Many  of  the 
speeches  of  these  stirring  days  have  been  entirely  lost 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF   NATIONALITY  93 

to  us,  and  even  the  eloquence  of  such  men  as  James 
Otis,  Samuel  Adams,  and  Patrick  Henry  is  but  little 
more  than  a  tradition;  yet  some  passages  in  the 
fragmentary  reports  of  Henry's  speeches  are  perhaps 
as  familiar  to  us  as  any  words  written  or  spoken  dur 
ing  the  whole  of  this  Revolutionary  time.  "  Our 
chains  are  forged !  Their  clanking  may  be  heard  on 
the  plains  of  Boston.  The  war  is  inevitable,  and  let  it 
come.  .  .  .  Is  life  so  dear  or  peace  so  sweet  as  to  be 
purchased  at  the  cost  of  chains  and  slavery  ?  Forbid 
it,  Almighty  God!  I  know  not  what  course  others 
may  take ;  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me 
death." 

The  speeches  of  James  Otis  were  likened  by  his 
contemporaries  to  "a  flame  of  fire,"  and  Richard 
Henry  Lee  was  called  "  the  American  Cicero."  Read 
to-day,  without  the  orator's  living  power  of  voice  and 
gesture,  these  snatches  of  Revolutionary  eloquence 
seem  stilted  and  overwrought.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  while  we  read  them  coldly  and 
critically,  when  they  were  uttered  a  tremendous  and 
uncertain  issue  hung  over  the  speaker  and  his  hearers, 
and  that  men's  hearts  were  full  of  the  daring  and 
defiance  of  a  great  resolution. 

The  political  literature  of  this  period  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  these  gusts  of  oratory.  The 

national  crisis  produced  numbers  of  politi- 

Other  poht- 
cal  essays  and  pamphlets  of  a  more  sober    ical  litera- 

and   solid   character,    which    make   their    ture- 
main  appeal  to   reason  and  discuss  the  nature   and 
principles  of  government  with  great  ability,  clearness, 


94        INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

and  a  philosophic  breadth.  This  political  writing, 
beginning  during  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  Revolution  and  including  the  period  of  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Constitution,  shows  us  a  new  side  of 
American  literary  ability.  Hitherto  the  best  intellect 
of  the  country,  when  it  turned  to  writing  at  all,  had 
largely  occupied  itself  with  intricate  questions  of 
theology,  but,  directed  in  a  new  course  by  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  hour,  these  political  treatises  and  state 
papers  demonstrated  the  American  strength  and 
capacity  in  the  sphere  of  government.  As  Mr. 
Charles  Dudley  Warner  says:  "  It  is  in  the  political 
writings  immediately  preceding  and  following  the 
Revolution,  such  as  those  of  Hamilton,  Madison,  Jay, 
Franklin,  and  Jefferson,  that  the  new  birth  of  a 
nation  of  original  force  and  ideas  is  declared.  It  has 
been  said,  and  I  think  the  statement  can  be  main 
tained,  that  for  any  parallel  to  those  treatises  on  the 
nature  of  government,  in  respect  to  originality  and 
vigor,  we  must  go  back  to  classic  times. ' '  * 

One  of  the  most  important  examples  of  this  order 
of  writing  is  Tlie  Federalist,  a  series  of  eighty-four 
essays  by  Hamilton,  Madison,  and  Jay. 

The  purpose  of  these  essavs,  written  after    The  Feder- 

-    '  ahst. 

the   close   of   the    Revolution,   while  the 

States  were  loosely  held  together  by  Articles  of  Con 
federation,  is  to  urge  the  establishment  of  a  closer 
union  by  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  They 
came  out  in  a  Xew  York  newspaper,  and  were  first 

*  Life  of  Irving,  p.  10. 


95 


published  in  a  connected  form  in  1788,  the  year  before 
the  Constitution  became  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
land.  The  Federalist  is  written  in  strong,  pure 
English,  and  in  the  temperance  of  its  tone  and  its 
range  of  historical  illustrations  it  remains  a  monu 
ment  to  the  learning  and  breadth  of  our  early  states 
men.  Its  inspiration  is  the  great  idea  of  a  strong  and 
united  nation.  The  following  passage  may  be  cited 
as  a  good  statement  of  its  leading  motive:  "  Let  the 
thirteen  States,  bound  together  in  one  strict  and  indis 
soluble  union,  concur  in  creating  one  great  American 
system,  superior  to  the  control  of  all  Transatlantic 
force  or  influence,  and  able  to  dictate  the  terms 
of  connection  between  the  Old  World  and  the 
New."* 

THOMAS  JEFFERSOX  (1743-1826)  of  Virginia,  the 
third  President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  leader 
of  the  opposite  political  party  to  that  of 
Hamilton,    was  another  notable   political    Thomas 
writer  of  the  time.     Jefferson  was  a  man 
of  considerable  cultivation,  with  distinctly  scholarly 
tastes  and  high  aims.     His  views  on  popular  liberty 
were   more  radical  than   those  of  his  great  contem 
poraries,  for  lie  had  a  fuller  confidence  in  the  ability 
of   the    people    to    exercise   power   with    discretion. 
Unlike  Hamilton  and  the  Federalists,  he  believed  in 
greatly  restricting  the  power  of  the  national  govern 
ment  and  correspondingly  encouraging  that  of   the 
several  States,   for  he  thought  that   by  this  means 

*  The  Federalist. 


96        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

greater  freedom  would  be  secured  to  the  individual. 
The  century  in  which  Jefferson  was  born  witnessed 
the  outburst  of  the  democratic  spirit  in  the  Old  as  well 
as  in  the  Xew  World,  and  Jefferson  may  properly  be 
classed  with  certain  European  thinkers  that  helped  on 
this  movement. 

Such  writers  as  Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679)  and 
John  Locke  (1632-1704)  in  England,  and  Jean 
Jacques  Rousseau  (1712-1778)  in  France,  had  prepared 
the  way  for  new  and  sometimes  exaggerated  views 
of  human  liberty  and  equality.  We  need  not  inquire 
how  far  Jefferson  was  influenced  by  these  writers: 
it  is  enough  to  observe  that,  like  them,  his  tendency 
was  to  regard  questions  of  government  and  human 
rights  from  the  broadly  theoretical  or  philosophic, 
as  well  as  from  the  practical,  side.  In  this  he  stood 
apart  from  the  great  majority  of  the  American  revo 
lutionists,  whose  resistance  to  England  sprang  rather 
from  that  instinct  of  freedom  which  is  inbred  in 
men  of  English  blood  than  from  any  definite  theories 
concerning  the  "  rights  of  man."  The  Kew  England 
farmer  left  his  plough  to  confront  the  British  soldiery 
at  Lexington,  but  it  was  reserved  for  Jefferson,  in  the 
opening  sentences  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
to  justify  the  resistance  of  the  Colonies  on  the  broad 
foundation  of  natural  and  inalienable  human  rights. 
In  the  sonorous  introduction  to  the  Declaration, 
Jefferson  puts  aside  for  the  time  all  the  particular 
grievances  which  were  the  immediate  causes  of  dis 
pute,  and  goes  back  to  political  principles,  which 
he  holds  are  fundamental  and  universal.  He  set? 


TUP]    BEGINNINGS   OF   NATIONALITY  9? 

forth  the  rights  of  Americans,  not  under  the  British 
Constitution,  but  by  the  law  of  nature;  he  declares 
that  governments  are  designed  to  secure  men  in  these 
rights,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  and  "  that  whenever  any  form  of 
government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it."* 
This  belief  in  the  rights  of  man  as  man  was  not  a  new 
one  with  Jefferson  when  he  wrote  the  Declaration. 
In  some  resolutions  prepared  by  him  in  1774  he  had 
declared  that  Parliament  had  infringed  upon  both  the 
natural  and  legal  rights  of  the  Americans,  and  in  the 
same  year,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  Summary  View 
of  the  Rights  of  America,  he  reiterated  this  opinion. 
It  was  this  pamphlet,  which  took  a  most  advanced 
ground  in  regard  to  the  whole  question  of  Colonial 
rights,  that  brought  Jefferson  to  the  front  as  one  of 
the  leading  American  political  writers.  It  was  widely 
read,  not  only  in  this  country  but  in  England,  where 
it  was  republished  in  a  modified  form  by  the  great 
statesman  Edmund  Burke.  Jefferson's  belief  in 
liberty  and  his  confidence  in  the  masses  showed 
themselves  in  more  than  one  direction.  A  Virginian 
and  a  slaveholder,  he  was  consistent  and  large-minded 
enough  to  champion  the  cause  of  the  slave,  and  in  an 
eloquent  passage  in  his  Xotcs  on  Virginia,  after 
recording  his  protest  against  slavery,  he  goes  on  to 
prophesy  the  evil  to  come.  The  "liberties"  which 
are  the  "gift  of  God"  "are  not  to  be  violated 

*  Declaration  of  Independence. 


98        INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

but  with  His  wrath."  "Indeed,"  he  adds,— "  I 
tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is 
just:  that  His  justice  cannot  sleep  forever. "*  The 
same  confidence  in  and  respect  for  man  is  shown  in 
Jefferson's  efforts  in  behalf  of  popular  education.  As 
in  the  case  of  his  protest  against  slavery,  this  is  the 
more  praiseworthy  when  we  remember  the  views  that 
then  commonly  prevailed  on  this  matter  in  Virginia 
and  the  South.  Xo  New  Englander  could  write  more 
earnestly  and  liberally  than  did  this  land-owner  of 
the  "Old  Dominion."  "Preach,  my  dear  sir,  a 
crusade  against  ignorance;  establish  and  improve  the 
law  for  educating  the  common  people.  Let  our 
countrymen  know  that  the  people  alone  can  protect 
us  against  these  evils,  and  that  the  tax  which  will  be 
paid  for  this  purpose  is  not  more  than  the  thousandth 
part  of  what  will  be  paid  to  kings,  priests,  and  nobles 
who  will  rise  up  among  us  if  we  leave  the  people  in 
ignorance."  f 

As  Jefferson  was  not  a  speaker,  he  naturally  relied 
most  on  writing  as  a  means  of  influencing  others  and 
of  diffusing  his  views.  He  was  a  prodigious  letter- 
writer,  some  twenty-five  thousand  of  his  letters  being 
still  in  existence,  and  these  with  his  public  documents 
and  political  tracts  compose  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
his  works.  Besides  these  he  wrote  a  few  short  essays 
of  a  more  purely  literary  character,  and  the  Notes  on 

*  Works,  Ford's  ed.,  vol.  iii.  p.  267. 

f  Letter  to  Geo.  Wythe,  1786.  Works,  Ford's  ed.,  vol.  iv. 
p.  269. 


THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    NATIONALITY  99 

Virginia,  a  careful  account  of  the  physical  features, 
laws,  and  general  condition  of  his  native  State,  which 
contains  some  passages  of  considerable  literary  merit. 
But,  of  course,  Jefferson,  like  many  of  the  other 
founders  of  the  nation,  was  a  statesman  first  and  only 
secondarily  a  writer.  He  wrote  his  own  epitaph ;  and 
we  may  infer  from  it  those  achievements  of  his  life 
upon  which  he  looked  back  with  especial  satisfaction 
at  the  last.  In  it  he  speaks  of  himself  as  "  Author  of 
the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  of  the 
Statute  of  Virginia  for  religious  freedom,  and  father 
of  the  University  of  Virginia."  Freedom  of  action, 
freedom  of  conscience,  and  freedom  of  intellect;  the 
spread  of  knowledge  as  the  true  basis  of  a  State  and 
as  the  best  safeguard  for  the  right  exercise  of  liberty, 
— these  things,  in  brief,  seemed  to  Jefferson  the  end 
towards  which  the  race  should  move;  and  it  was  by 
his  work  done  in  furtherance  of  these  things  that  he 
chiefly  desired  to  be  remembered. 

STUDY  LIST 
ESTABLISHMENT   OF  NATIONALITY 

1.  Thomas  Jefferson.    Works  edited  by  Paul  Leicester 
Ford  ;   Life,  by   James   Schouler,  in   Makers  of   America 
Series,  and  by  Jno.  T.  Morse,  Jun.,  in  American  Statesmen 
Series. 

2.  The  Federalist,  edited  by  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

3.  History  of  the  Period.    Lives  of  Hamilton,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Jno.  Adams,  Samuel  Adams,  and  Patrick  Henry, 
in  American  Statesmen   Series  ;    John   Fiske's  American 


100     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Revolution  (2  vols.),  and  The  Critical  Period  of  American 
History ;  McMaster's  History  of  the  People  of  the  United 
States,  vols.  i.-iii. ;  A.  B.  Hart's  Formation  of  the  Union 
in  Epochs  of  American  History  ;  and  F.  A.  Walker's  The 
Making  of  the  Nation  in  American  History  Series. 


CHAPTER  II 
POETRY  AND  ROMANCE 

OUR  struggle  Avith  and  triumph  over  England,  fol. 
lowed   by  the    stimulating   conviction  that  we   had 

actually  taken  our  place  among  the  nations    . 

J  .       i  The  young 

of  the  world,  with  a  long  vista  of  greatness  nation  in 
opening  before  us,  put  a  new  and  patriotic  literature- 
life  into  our  poetry,  as  well  as  into  our  orations  and 
political  discussions.  The  period  between  the  estab 
lishment  of  our  independence  and  the  close  of  the 
War  of  1812  is  memorable  in  European  history  as 
the  epoch  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  the  rise 
and  downfall  of  Xapoleon.  '  Generous  and  impulsive 
spirits  were  aflame  with  Avild  notions  of  social  change, 
of  Liberty,  Fraternity,  and  the  "  Rights  of  Man"; 
and  many  of  these  ideas,  falling  in  as  they  did  with 
our  newly-asserted  republicanism,  heightened  our 
patriotic  enthusiasm  and  found  an  utterance  in  our 
literature.  Before  the  dawn  of  our  Revolution  our 
attempts  at  poetry  had  been  few  in  number  and 
generally  local  in  their  character.  The  verse  of  this 
new  era  of  our  nationality  was,  at  least,  abundant  in 
quantity,  ambitious  in  design,  and  distended  with  a 
somewhat  magnificent  sense  of  the  greatness  of  its 
theme.  Viewed  purely  as  poetry,  the  pompons  and 

101 


102     INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

monotonous  epics,  or  crude,  rough-hewn  ballads  of 
the  time  appeal  but  faintly  to  readers  of  to-day,  but 
they  claim  attention  as  an  important  forward  step  in 
our  national  and  literary  growth.  They  reflected  and 
furthered  the  sense  that  we  were  one  people,  born  to 
a  great  destiny;  and  never,  perhaps,  at  any  period  of 
our  history  has  the  pride  of  national  greatness  so 
dictated  and  dominated  American  Song.  In  New 
England  TIMOTHY  I) WIGHT  (1752-1817),  JOEL  BAR 
LOW  (1755-1812),  and  JOHX  TRUMBULL 
(1750-1831),  were  the  principal  makers 
of  this  patriotic  verse.  In  the  Middle 
States  it  was  represented  by  PHILIP  FREXEAU 
(1752-1832),  HUGH  HEXRY  BRACKEXRIDGE  (1748- 
181G),  and  FRAXCIS  HOPKIXSOX  (1737-1791),  the 
latter  chiefly  remembered  for  his  humorous  ballad 
The  Battle  of  the  Kegs.  There,  too,  JOSEPH  HOP 
KIXSOX  (1770-1842)  wrote  his  Hail  Columbia,  first 
sung  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Theatre,  Philadelphia, 
in  1798.  In  the  South,  towards  the  close  of  the 
era,  FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY  (1779-1843)  composed 
our  other  national  song,  The  Star-Spangled  Banner 
(1814).  Dwight  and  Barlow  were  both  chaplains 
in  the  army  during  the  Revolution,  and  were  thus 
brought  close  to  that  making  of  the  nation  which 
gives  their  work  its  distinctive  note.  It  would 
be  wearisome  to  do  more  than  allude  to  the  work 
of  this  group  of  Revolutionary  writers  in  the  most 
general  terms;  but  a  clear  understanding  of  its  general 
character  is  neither  uninteresting  nor  unimportant. 
Three  points  are  worth  noting:  the  length  and  pro- 


POETRY    AND    ROMANCE  103 

tensions  of  many  of  their  poems;  their  recurrent  note 
of  patriotism,  full  of  high  hopes  for  the  country's 
future,  and  often  mingled  with  the  current  catch 
words  of  social  reform;  and  their  timid  imitation 
of  the  current  English  poetic  forms.  The  mere 
titles  of  some  of  these  patriotic  poems  are  sufficient 
indications  of  their  theme  and  spirit.  Timothy 
D wight,  a  grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  pres 
ident  of  Yale  College  (1795),  published  a  poem  en 
titled  America  in  1772;  Freneau  and  Brackenridge 
brought  out  a  poem  on  The  Kisiny  Glory  of  America 
in  the  same  year.  Brackenridge's  Bunker's  Hill 
appeared  in  the  year  our  independence  was  declared, 
and  Joel  Barlow's  Vision  of  Columbus  in  1785. 
Glancing  through  these  poems,  we  can  see  how  the  new 
thought  of  the  country's  possibilities  has  wrought  on 
the  imagination  of  these  authors.  In  Dwight's  Con 
quest  of  Canaan  (1785),  a  poem  of  epic  proportion, 
Joshua  is  made  to  preach  the  "  rights  of  man,"  *  and 
foretell  the  future  prosperity  of  the  Republic  of  the 
West.  In  that  "  blissful  Eden  "  men  shall 

"  Trace  juster  paths  and  choose  their  chiefs  divine, 

On  Freedom's  base  erect  the  heavenly  plan, 
Teach  laws  to  reign  and  save  the  Rights  of  Mau."f 

*  This  favorite  phrase  occurs  in  a  modified  form  in  Dwight's 
Columbia : 

"  Thy  heroes  the  rights  of  mankind  shall  defend, 
And  triumph  pursue  them,  and  glory  attend." 

Also,  more  than  once  in  Freneau's  America  Independent 
(1778) : 

"  If  o'er  mankind  man  gives  you  royal  sway, 
Take  not  the  right  of  humankind  away." 

f  Conquest  of  Canaan. 


104     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Towards  the  end  of  John  Trumbull's  McFingal,  a 
satirical  poem  dealing  with  the  Revolution,  and 
directed  particularly  against  the  Tory  or  English 
party,  the  poet  declares,  in  a  characteristically  Ameri 
can  passage,  that  there  is  room  enough  to  put  Britain 
into  the  middle  of  one  of  our  great  lakes,  where  Lord 
North  standing  on  the  margin  would  not  be  able  to 
see  laud.  England's  day  is  declining,  America's  is  to 
come.  The  poet  sees  in  the  future — 

"  Where  now  the  panther  guards  his  den, 
Her  desert  forests  swarm  with  men, 
Her  cities,  towers,  and  columns  rise, 
And  dazzling  temples  meet  the  skies  ; 
****** 
Till  to  the  skirts  of  Western  day, 
The  peopled  regions  own  her  sway."  * 

Barlow's  Columliad  (1807),  an  expansion  of  his 
already  lengthy  Vision  of  Columbus,  designed  to  be 
the  national  epic,  closed  with  a  prayer  for  that  "  fed 
eration  of  the  world"  which  Tennyson  has  pictured 
as  the  consummation  of  human  history: 

' '  Bid  the  last  breath  of  dire  contention  cease, 
And  bind  all  regions  in  the  leagues  of  peace  ; 
Bid  one  great  empire,  with  extensive  sway, 
Spread  with  the  Sun,  and  bound  the  walls  of  day  ; 
One  centred  system,  one  all-ruling  soul, 
Live  through  the  parts  and  regulate  the  whole."  f 

Unreadable  as  most  of  these  poems  have  become, 
with  all  their  barren  flats  of  mediocrity,  they  are 

*  McFingal,  Canto  IV. 
f  Barlow's  Columbiad. 


POETRY   AND   ROMANCE  105 

often,  as  in  the  lines  just  quoted,  noble  in  their  ideals. 
To  readers  of  that  generation  they  stood  for  the  new 
born  America,  for  the  whole  land  with  its  boundless 
hopes  and  aspirations,  the  youthful  conqueror  of  one 
of  the  proudest  empires  of  the  earth. 

Realizing  this,  we  see  also  that  this   new-fledged 
and  aggressive  Americanism  did  not  and  could  not 

create,    by    a    deliberate    and    conscious    . 

National- 

eftort,  a  truly  national  body  of  poetry,  ity  in  lit- 
True  nationality  must  exist  before  it  can  erature- 
find  a  voice  in  literature,  and  true  nationality  is  a 
thing  of  slow  growth.  The  colonists  were  a  provin 
cial  part  of  England;  they  had  read  English  books, 
lived  on  English  thought,  formed  their  literary  stand 
ards  on  a  study  of  English  classics:  a  declaration  of 
independence  was  not  an  enchanter's  wand  to  change 
this  at  a  stroke.  Consequently  we  find  the  poets  of 
this  period  declaiming  against  Britain,  and  vaunting 
their  independence  of  her,  in  verses  which  show  by 
their  careful  conformity  to  English  models  our  com 
plete  intellectual  subjection  to  her.  During  the 
period  of  our  Revolution  many  English  versifiers,  par 
ticularly  those  of  inferior  genius  and  originality,  were 
still  imitating  Pope,  the  ease  with  which  the  monot 
onous  rise  and  fall  of  Pope's  manner  could  be 
reproduced  adding,  no  doubt,  to  the  number  of  his 
followers.*  In  manner, — that  is,  in  the  outward  con 
struction  of  their  verses,- — Dwight,  Barlow,  and  many 
others,  are  simply  Colonial  followers  of  Pope,  holding 

*  See  what  Las  been  said  on  this  point  on  p.  69,  supra. 


LOG     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

a  similar  position,  except  for  the  nature  of  their  sub 
ject,  to  that  occupied  by  such  a  versifier  as  Erasmus 
Darwin  in  England.  Barlow,  in  particular,  has  caught 
Pope's  very  accent,  as  in  the  balanced  distribution  of 
his  adjectives,  one  emphasizing  each  half  of  a  line.* 
In  his  diction  he  often  reminds  us  of  Pope's  contem 
porary,  James  Thomson.  TrumbulPs  McFingal  is 
an  acknowledged  imitation  of  Butler's  Hudibras. 
Dwight's  Greenfield  Hill  (1794),  a  less  ambitious  and 
more  readable  poem  than  his  Canaan,  contains  imita 
tions,  or  direct  paraphrases,  of  Thomson,  Goldsmith, 
Pope,  and  probably  of  Cowper,  Dyer,  and  many  other 
English  poets  of  the  eighteenth  century,  f  The  fact 
is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the  first  considerable  efforts 
at  poetry  among  us  were  made  at  a  time  when  the 
English  poets  naturally  selected  were  not,  in  most 
cases,  the  best  models  for  a  young  nation  to  imitate. 
The  simple  force  and  pathos  of  the  ballad,  the  native 
music  of  the  song,  were  almost  replaced  in  the  England 
of  Pope  by  a  style  of  poetry  more  artificial,  less  direct, 
full  of  conventionality,  sterile  in  generous  emotions, 
the  utterance  of  a  sophisticated  age,  and,  as  such, 

*  Cf.  the  following  lines  from  the  Columbiad,  with  sorue  of 
the  descriptions  of  nature  in  Pope's  Windsor  Forest  : 

"  Beneath  tail  trees,  in  livelier  verdure  gay, 
Long  level  walks  a  humble  garb  display; 
The  infant  corn,  unconscious  of  its  worth, 
Points  the  green  spire  and  bends  the  foliage  forth." 

•j-  D wight  says  in  his  preface  to  this  poem  :  "  Originally  the 
writer  designed  to  imitate  in  the  several  parts  the  manner  of 
as  many  British  poets  ;  but,  finding  himself  too  much  occupied 
to  pursue  the  design,  he  relinquished  it." 


POETRY   AX1)   ROMANCE  10? 

unsuited    to   guide   the   poetic    attempts   of   a   new 
civilization. 

But  in  the  midst  of  all  this  imitation,  there  was  the 
hardly  audible  tone  of  a  more  genuine  and  distinct 
poetic  voice.  Philip  Freneau,  who  turned  out  much 
doggerel  and  indifferent  verse  for  the  newspapers, 
reaches  at  times,  in  some  lyric  like  his  Indian  Bury 
ing  Ground,  a  level  higher  than  that  to  which  any  of 
his  more  ambitious  brethren  attained.  His  best  work 
is  indeed  small  in  quantity,  and  shines  out  from  a 
mass  of  rubbish,  but  gems  like  the  poem  just  men 
tioned,  The  Wild  Honeysuckle,  and  Eutaw  Springs 
may  be  said  to  hold  a  permanent  place  in  our  litera 
ture.  Such  poems  bear  the  stamp  of  that  originality 
which  is  one  of  the  marks  of  a  true  poet,  and  they 
have  an  unmistakable  grace  and  delicacy  of  touch. 
The  English  are  commonly  supposed  to  be  slow  to 
recognize  American  genius,  but  Thomas  Moore  ex 
pressed  his  admiration  of  Freneau,  while  Campbell,  in 
O'Connor's  Child,  borrowed  one  of  Freneau's  finest 
lines,  and  Scott  introduced  another,  but  slightly 
changed,  into  Marmion.  Freneau  thus  received  strik 
ing  proofs  of  appreciation  from  three  of  the  greatest 
English  poets  of  the  day.  Freneau  was  probably  the 
earliest  of  our  writers  to  recognize  the  Indian  as  a  fit 
subject  for  romantic  treatment,  and  in  this  respect  he 
may  be  thought  of  as  the  forerunner  of  Cooper,  Long 
fellow,  and  Simms.  In  Freneau,  then,  with  all  his 
haste  and  roughness,  we  note  the  slight  but  positive 
beginning  of  a  true  and  higher  order  of  poetry  in 
America. 


108     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Hard  upon  this  outburst  of  patriotic  poetry  followed 

the  powerful  but  morbid  and  fantastic  romances  of 

CHARLES  BROCKDEX  BROWN  (1771-1810), 

The  begin 
ning  of  the  first  American  writer  who  devoted  him- 
romance.  SQ\£  ^o  literature  as  a  profession.  Brown 
may  fairly  be  considered  our  first  romance-writer,  al 
though  a  few  stories  of  very  inferior  merit  had  appeared 
before  his  work  began.  He  was  born  in  Philadelphia 
in  1771,  and  in  that  city,  except  for  a  brief  stay  in 
Xew  York,  his  short  life  was  spent.  From  his  youth 
his  health  was  delicate,  and  in  a  letter  written  towards 
the  close  of  his  life  he  declares  that  he  had  never 
known  what  it  Avas  to  feel  well  for  more  than  .half  an 
hour  at  a  time.  Like  many  delicate  boys,  he  found  his 
pleasure  in  poring  over  books  and  in  the  world  of  the 
imagination.  Much  of  his  time  was  spent  in  solitary 
country  rambles.  He  began  to  study  law,  but  aban 
doned  a  profession  whose  rigid  and  practical  require 
ments  must  have  been  distasteful  to  one  of  his  dreamy 
and  romantic  disposition.  Although  sprung  from 
Quaker  stock  and  brought  up  in  the  doctrines  of  that 
sect,  Brown  early  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  scepti 
cal  philosophy  and  extravagant  social  theories  that  were 
then  dazzling  so  many  ardent  spirits.  He  was  greatly 
attracted  by  the  radical  teachings  of  William  Godwin, 
an  English  novelist  and  would-be  social  reformer,  and 
of  Godwin's  wife,  Mary  Wollstonecraft.  The  strong 
effect  of  their  influence  both  on  Brown's  views  and  on 
his  literary  style  is  apparent  in  his  writings.  The 
extreme  theories  advocated  by  Mrs.  Godwin  (Mary 
TVollstonecraft)  on  the  position  of  women  appear  to 


POKTKY    AND    ROMANCE  109 

have  prompted  the  composition  of  Brown's  first  pub 
lished  work,  Alcuin,  a  Dialogue  on  the  Rights  of 
Women.  A  youthful  romance,  Cur  sol,  in  which  lie 
depicts  a  Utopian  community,  is  suggestive  of  those 
visions  of  a  new  earth  in  which  Godwin  and  his  fol 
lowers  indulged.  In  his  maturer  romances  Brown's 
style  and  principle  of  composition  show  so  marked  a 
resemblance  to  the  works  of  the  English  novelist,  that 
he  is  often  spoken  of  as  "  the  American  disciple  of 
Godwin."  Wicland,  or  TJie  Transformation,  Brown's 
first  published  romance,  appeared  in  1798.  The  plot 
turns  on  the  employment  of  ventriloquism  by  the 
villain  of  the  story,  with  awful  and  tragical  results. 
Horrible  and  improbable  as  the  book  is,  it  contains 
scenes  of  unquestionable  power.  Like  much  of 
Brown's  work,  it  has  about  it  a  morbid  and  unwhole 
some  atmosphere,  attributable  perhaps  in  part  to  ill- 
health,  and  in  part  to  the  fondness  for  creepy  and 
ghostly  subjects,  which  was  a  marked  trait  in  the 
contemporary  English  school  of  romance.  Brown's 
other  romances,  Ormond,  Arthur  Mervyn,  Edgar 
Huntly,  Clara  Howard,  and  Jane  Talbot,  followed  in 
rapid  succession,  all  except  the  last  appearing  within 
three  years  after  the  publication  of  Wieland,  On 
these  books,  hastily  written  as  they  must  have  been, 
his  reputation  chiefly  rests. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  influence  of  Godwin  on 
Brown,  but  we  must  remember  further  that  the  work 
of  both  men  was  more  or  less  in  keeping  with  the 
general  character  of  romance-writing  then  popular. 
Both  wrote  before  Walter  Scott  had  at  least  partially 


110     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

freed  the  romance  from  its  stilted  and  unnatural  dic 
tion,  its  crude  horrors,  and  gross  improbabilities,  by 
his  finer  and  saner  art.  Allowing  for  some  personal 
peculiarities,  it  is  to  the  gruesome  and  high-flown 
school  of  romance  then  uppermost — a  school  of  which 
Mrs.  Eadcliffe  is  perhaps  the  most  familiar  exponent 
— that  Brown  belongs.  On  the  other  hand,  he  aimed 
to  be  American,  and  to  a  certain  extent  he  succeeded. 
Like  Barlow,  Dwight,  or  Freneau,  he  chose  American 
subjects.  Arthur  Mervyn  is  famous  for  its  graphic 
descriptions  of  the  ravages  of  the  yellow-fever  in 
Philadelphia  in  1793;  Edgar  Huntly,  the  scene  of 
which  is  laid  in  a  then  thinly-settled  part  of  Penn 
sylvania,  is  full  of  vivid,  if  somewhat  over-colored, 
descriptions  of  the  solitudes  of  mountain  and  forest. 
"We  are  taken,  perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  fiction, 
into  the  midst  of  the  perils  of  our  frontier  life;  we 
encounter  the  panther  and  the  Indian,  the  latter  sur 
rounded  with  none  of  Cooper's  tinge  of  romance,  but 
depicted  as  the  mere  wily  and  bloodthirsty  savage. 
This  choice  of  a  native  theme  was  a  deliberate  one, 
for  Brown  says  in  his  preface  that  he  is  the  first  to 
call  forth  the  reader's  sympathy  by  substituting  for 
puerile  superstitions,  Gothic  castles,  and  chimeras, — 
the  conventional  machinery  of  the  English  romances, 
— "  the  incidents  of  Indian  hostility  and  the  perils  of 
the  Western  wilderness."  *  If  in  this  story  he  dis 
tantly  suggests  Cooper,  in  his  fondness  for  psycho 
logical  problems,  and  in  the  morbid  strain  that  runs 

*  Preface  to  Edgar  Huntly. 


POETRY    AND    ROMANCE  111 

through  many  of  his  books,  lie  still  more  faintly  fore 
shadows  Poe  and  the  yet  greater  Hawthorne.  As  has 
been  hinted,  the  faults  of  Brown's  romances,  their 
unreality,  their  affected  sentiment,  their  improbability 
and  the  like,  are  often  those  of  the  school  of  writing 
to  which  he  belonged.  Another  fault,  the  confused 
and  inartistic  way  in  which  the  plots  are  developed,  is 
probably  attributable  to  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
were  composed.  In  spite  of  their  shortcomings,  they 
have  very  decided  merits.  The  genuine  narrative 
power  in  the  man  triumphs  at  times  over  all  obstacles, 
as  where  Edgar  Iluntly,  who  has  fallen  into  a  cave 
•while  walking  in  his  sleep,  is  described  regaining  con 
sciousness  in  darkness  and  in  total  ignorance  of  his 
surroundings.  Brown's  romances  were  among  the 
books  that  especially  directed  and  fascinated  the  mind 
of  that  greater  admirer  of  Godwin's,  the  young  poet 
Shelley.  When  we  consider  Brown's  models,  his 
provincial  surroundings,  his  continuous  ill-health,  his 
death  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-nine,  and  fairly  esti 
mate  what  he  accomplished  under  these  conditions, 
we  may  pronounce  him  one  of  our  earliest  men  of 
genius  in  the  sphere  of  literature. 

Looking  back  upon  the  work  of  such  men  as 
D  wight,  Freneau,  and  Brown,  it  is  plain  that  the 
conditions  which  governed  the  production  of  poetry 
and  of  romance  in  this  time  were  sub 
stantially  the  same.  In  both  fields  we  Poetry  and 
J  romance. 

were  struggling   to  be  American,  and  in 

both   wre  were  still  more  or  less   provincial   in   our 

subservience  to  the  English  mode.     Our  authors  dealt 


112     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

with  American  subjects,  but  to  learn  how  to  do  so 
they  kept  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  example  set  them  by 
their  English  brethren,  Yet  a  more  original  spirit 
was  struggling  to  emancipate  itself,  and  that  spirit 
was  present  in  the  best  of  these  poets,  Philip  Freneati, 
and,  if  to  a  less  extent,  in  the  first  of  the  romancers, 
Charles  Brockden  Brown. 

STUDY  LIST 
EARLY  POETRY  AND  ROMANCE 

1.  Literature.     Stedman  and  Hutchinson's  Library  of 
American  Literature;  Moore's  Songs  and  Ballads  of  the 
American  Revolution  ;  Eggleston's  American  War  Ballads 
and  Lyrics;  Richardson's  A merican  Literature;  Nichol's 
American  Literature;  Tyler's  American  Literature,  his 
Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution,   and   his 
Three  Men  of  Letters  (Berkeley,  Trumbull,  and  Barlow). 

2.  Philip  Freneau.     Poems.     "The  Wild  Honeysuckle,1' 
"To  a  Honey  Bee,''  "The  Indian  Burying-grouml,"  "  To 
the  Memory  of  the  Americans  who  Fell  at  Eutaw." 

3.  Charles  Brockden  Brown.    See  article  on  Brown  in 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  and  Prescott's  Essay  published 
in    his    Miscellanies;    also    Life    in    Sparks's    American 
Biography.      For  Brown's  connection   with  Shelley  and 
Godwin,  see  Dowden's  Life  of  Shelley. 


PART   III 

THE   LITERATURE   OF  THE   REPUBLIC 
Cir.  1809-1897 

CHAPTER  I 

LITERATURE   IN   THE   MIDDLE   STATES, 
1809-1835 

MANY  of  the  writers  of  the  period  last  considered 
belong  to  the  years  of  the  Revolution,  and  to  that 
unsettled  interval  immediately  following,  before  our 
country  was  put  in  a  surer  and  more  established  con 
dition  by  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  (1787). 
At  such  a  time,  while  there  was  much  to  arouse 
patriotism,  there  was  much  to  awaken  anxiety,  and 
the  poet  had  to  look  to  the  promise  of  the  future  from 
the  midst  of  many  difficulties  and  dangers  that 
threatened  the  very  life  of  the  young  State.  But 
after  the  Constitution  had  placed  the  nation  on  a 
firmer  basis  by  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  central 
government,  many  of  these  dreams  of  the  poet  seemed 

in  a  fair  way  to  be  fulfilled.     The  need  of    , 

J.         .  The  growth 

a   truer   nationality   had    compacted    the    ofthere- 

loosely  confederated  Colonies  into  a  firm    Pul)lic- 
and  indissoluble  union.     Three  new  States,  Vermont, 

113 


114     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  had  been  added  to  the 
original  thirteen  between  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  close  of  the  century.  In  1801 
Louisiana  was  purchased,  and  the  United  States 
asserted  her  power  and  dignity  in  a  war  with  the 
Barbary  pirates  in  defence  of  her  growing  commerce. 
In  1802  Ohio  was  admitted  as  a  State.  The  rising 
republic  again  asserted  herself  in  that  contest  with 
England,  which  has  been  called  the  Second  War  for 
Independence.  This  war  greatly  strengthened  our 
national  confidence  and  self-respect:  it  proved  that 
the  American  Union  was  not  an  experiment,  but  an 
accomplished  fact;  and  it  was  followed  by  a  growth  of 
patriotic  pride  and  a  deepening  realization  of  the 
meaning  of  our  national  existence.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  the  people  were  jubilant,  and  the  country 
blazed  with  bonfires.  In  the  first  flush  of  patriotic 
enthusiasm  onr  national  song,  The  Star-Spangled 
Banner,  was  composed.  While  we  were  thus  vindi 
cating  our  national  position  abroad,  the  nation  was 
still  further  extending  its  borders.  Louisiana  became 
a  State  in  1812,  and  in  the  years  succeeding  the 
second  war  with  England  the  sturdy  young  republic 
was  thrusting  out  her  arms  and  gathering  vast 
stretches  of  territory  to  herself.  Between  181G  and 
1821,  Indiana,  Mississippi,  Illinois,  Alabama,  Maine, 
and  Missouri  were  added  to  the  Union, — six  States 
within  six  years.  The  country's  strength  and  great 
ness  gained  on  the  imagination,  while  the  petty 
rivalries  and  jealousies,  which  were  a  remnant  of  the 
old  Colonial  exclusiveness,  grew  weaker,  and  the  idea 


WASHINGTON      IRVING 


LITERATURE    IX   THE   MIDDLE   STATES  115 

of  State  sovereignty  began  to  fade  before  the  larger 
conception  of  a  great  Republic,  whose  dominion 
should  stretch  from  sea  to  sea.  This  advance  of  the 
country  in  territory  and  importance  was  accompanied 
by  a  marked  improvement  in  our  literature,  and  that 
national  spirit  which  had  quickened  our  oratory  and 
poetry  to  new  life  continued  to  exert  an  increasing 
influence.  Indeed,  it  is  not  until  this  time  that 
American  literature  can  be  fairly  said  to  have  taken 
a  place  among  the  literatures  of  the  Avorld.  It  is  true 
that  before  this  a  few  writers,  such  as  Jonathan 
Edwards,  Franklin,  Freneau,  and  Brown,  had  pro 
duced  notable  works,  which  had  made  some  impression 
on  foreign  readers;  but  on  the  whole  it  must  be 
admitted  that  up  to  this  time  we  had  made  but  a 
slender  addition  to  the  great  body  of  literature,  and 
that  at  the  opening  of  this  century  American  books 
and  their  authors  were  commonly  unknown  or  despised 
beyond  the  provincial  limits  of  our  own  land.  This 
was  changed  by  the  group  of  writers  whose  work  we 
are  now  to  consider:  Washington  Irving  (1783-1859), 
James  Fenimore  Cooper  (1789-1851),  William  Cullen 
Bryant  (1794-1878),  and  their  associates. 

WASHINGTON  IRVING  (1783-1859). 

Washington  Irving  is  the  first  in  point  of  time  of 
our  greater  men  of  letters.  We  read  his  books  to-day, 
not  because  they  help  us  to  understand  a  past  stage  in 
our  mental  life  and  growth ;  not  merely  because  they 
were  a  force  in  broadening  the  thoughts  and  enlarg- 


116     INTRODUCTION"    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

ing  the  sympathies  of  a  past  generation ;  but  because 
they  have  the  enduring  interest  that  belongs  to  true 
literature,  and  so  delight  and  amuse  us  as  they  did  the 
readers  of  an  earlier  time.  Irving  is  almost  the  first 
American  writer  of  whom  this  can  be  truly  said.  We 
approach  the  works  of  nearly  all  the  others  that  have 
been  mentioned,  as  a  task ;  we  may  find  in  them  much 
that  is  curious,  profitable,  or  entertaining;  but  on  the 
whole  we  read  them  with  a  certain  effort  and  lay  them 
down  with  a  sense  of  a  duty  done.  But  Irving  is  still 
so  fresh,  so  living,  so  companionable,  that  in  turning 
over  the  pages  of  his  sketches  or  his  histories,  after 
toiling  through  the  dusty  volumes  of  his  predecessors, 
we  feel  that  we  are  at  length  among  the  first  of  the 
moderns,  and  that  we  have  gained  a  more  familiar 
ground.  Chaucer  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  "  father 
of  English  poetry,"  although  there  were  many  English 
poets  before  him;  and  in  some  such  way  Irving, 
while  he  had  many  predecessors,  may  be  thought  of 
as  the  father  of  our  American  prose. 

The  man  who  thus  stands  at  the  threshold  of  the 
greater  period  of  our  literature  was  lovable  and 
Irvine's  kindly,  and  his  life  was  as  beautiful  and 
life.  as  wholesome  as  his  books.  His  father, 

William  Irving,  a  Scotch  sailor  from  the  Orkney 
Islands,  had  married  an  English  girl  and  settled  in 
Xew  York  city.  He  entered  into  business  there  some 
years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Eevolution,  and 
there  Washington  Irving,  the  youngest  of  eleven 
children,  was  born  in  1783,  the  very  year  of  the  birth 
of  our  Republic.  "  Washington's  work  is  ended," 


LITERATURE   IN    THE   MIDDLE   STATES  117 

Irving's  mother  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  and  the 
child  shall  be  named  after  him."  One  anecdote  of 
Irving's  childhood  impresses  itself  on  our  imagination. 
When  he  was  barely  out  of  petticoats,  a  Scotch  servant 
of  the  family  took  him  into  a  shop  which  Washington 
had  just  entered.  "Please  your  honor,"  she  said, 
pointing  to  her  little  charge,  "here's  a  bairn  was 
named  after  you."  The  President  put  his  hand  on 
the  head  of  his  little  namesake  and  gave  him  his  bless 
ing.  ' '  The  touch, ' '  says  Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner, 
"  could  not  have  been  more  efficacious,  though  it 
might  have  lingered  longer,  if  he  had  known  that  he 
was  propitiating  his  future  biographer."*  Irving's 
early  surroundings  seem  far  from  favorable  to  the 
development  of  genius.  Xew  York  was  then  a  pro 
vincial  town,  inferior  to  either  Philadelphia  or  Boston 
in  size,  importance,  and  culture.  It  had  suffered 
severely  from  the  British  occupation  during  the  Revo 
lution,  when  nearly  half  the  town  had  been  burned. 
Dutch  was  still  spoken,  although  the  use  of  English 
was  becoming  more  and  more  established ;  and  the  old 
Dutch  life,  which  was  to  furnish  Irving  with  material 
for  some  of  his  best  work,  still  lingered  in  the  town, 
and  held  its  place  yet  more  firmly  in  the  scattered 
dwellings  of  the  neighborhood.  The  commercial 
spirit  ruled,  education  was  backward,  and  there  was 
but  little  literary  or  intellectual  life.  Irving's  early 
opportunities  for  education  appear  to  have  been 
limited.  He  left  school  before  he  was  sixteen.  In 

*  Warner's  Life  of  Irving,  p.  23. 


118     INTRODUCTION-   TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

addition  to  the  ordinary  English  branches  he  had 
learned  some  Latin, — his  nearest  approach  to  a  classi 
cal  education.  But,  like  Mount  joy  in  one  of  his 
sketches,  he  was  a  reader  and  a  dreamer.  At  ten  he 
was  stirred  by  a  romantic  Italian  poem,  read  in  trans 
lation;  at  eleven  his  boy's  imagination  was  sent  voyag 
ing  over  seas  by  the  adventures  and  travels  of  Robin 
son  Crusoe  and  Sinbad  the  Sailor.  He  would  linger 
about  the  pier  heads  and  watch  the  "  parting  ships  " 
with  "  longing  eyes."  His  father  had  the  strictness 
so  common  to  the  Scotch,  and  Irving  would  steal  out 
secretly  for  a  forbidden  taste  of  the  theatre,  returning 
home  at  nine  for  family  prayers.  At  sixteen  lie  began 
to  study  law,  but  his  health  was  delicate,  and  after 
he  had  taken  several  trips  in  this  country  in  hopes 
of  improving  it,  his  family  decided  to  send  him  to 
Europe,  that  he  might  have  the  benefit  of  the  sea 
voyage.  Europe  has  become  so  much  nearer  and 
more  familiar  to  Americans  in  these  days  of  rapid 
ocean-travel  that  we  are  likely  to  undervalue  the  in 
fluence  on  Irving's  career  of  what  was  for  those  times 
an  unusual  experience.* 

Before  Irving,  hardly  one  of  our  native-born  writers 
had  any  knowledge  of  the  older  civilizations,  except 
that  which  reached  him  through  the  imperfect 
medium  of  books  or  correspondence.  Franklin  and 
Jefferson  are  conspicuous  exceptions;  but  for  the  most 

*  "  So  late  as  1795,  a  gentleman  who  bad  been  abroad  was 
pointed  out,  even  in  the  streets  of  the  large  cities,  with  the 
remark,  '  There  goes  a  man  who  has  been  to  Europe.'  " — Mc- 
Master's  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  51. 


LITERATURE    IN    THE    MIDDLE   STATES  119 

part  our  men  of  letters  had  never  been  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  comparatively  crude  surroundings  and 
limited  life  of  a  new  community.  Irving  had  the 
natural  susceptibility  of  the  artist  to  beauty  and 
romance;  he  was  young,  and  his  restricted  life  and 
quiet  surroundings  must  have  made  the  change  to  the 
wonders  of  France  and  Italy,  the  throngs  of  London 
and  the  delights  of  Paris,  all  the  more  impressive, 
lie  was  abroad  for  two  years — learning  French, 
haunting  picture-galleries,  listening  to  music,  meeting 
celebrities.  lie  saw  the  great  actors  John  Kemble 
and  Mrs.  Siddons;  he  saw  the  fleet  of  Nelson  sweep 
by  in  search  of  the  French,  and  a  year  later  he  saw 
the  body  of  the  dead  admiral  lying  in  state  at  Green 
wich.  Shortly  after  his  return  home  in  1806,  Irving 
made  his  first  considerable  attempts  at  writing. 
Together  with  his  brother  William  and  J.  K.  Pauld- 
ing,  who  became  a  writer  of  some  distinction,  he  con 
ducted  a  fortnightly  periodical  called  Salmagundi.* 
The  paper,  like  Franklin's  Busybody,  was  an  open 
imitation  of  Addison's  Spectator,  long  the  accepted 
model  for  periodical  writers;  it  has  also  points  of 
resemblance  to  Goldsmith's  Citizen  of  the  World. 
Like  the  Spectator,  the  little  paper  aimed  to  ridicule 
the  follies  and  reflect  the  passing  life  and  fashions  of 
the  town;  it  was  light,  good-natured,  and  popular, 
and  a  creditable  production  for  that  time.  Many  of 
the  sketches  which  Irving  contributed  to  it  were  really 

*  Salmagundi  is  a  dish  composed  of  a  variety  of  ingredients  ; 
hence  a  miscellany  or  collection  of  pieces  of  various  kinds. 


120     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

'prentice  studies  in  subjects  which  he  afterwards  elabo 
rated  in  his  masterpieces,  and  this  fact  gives  them 
more  than  a  temporary  interest.  In  the  mean  time 
Irving  had  completed  his  legal  studies.  He  was  good- 
looking,  good-humored,  and  popular,  and  he  entered 
into  the  social  pleasures  of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Washington,  and  Albany,  as  well  as  of  his  native 
city,  with  a  youthful  zest,  lie  had  thus  a  wider 
experience  of  American  life  than  a  writer  would  have 
been  likely  to  gain  under  the  more  isolated  conditions 
of  the  Colonial  times.  In  the  midst  of  this  gay  life 
a  sorrow  came  to  Irving,  which  he  carried  with  him 
until  his  death.  This  was  the  death  of  Matilda 
Hoffman,  whom  he  had  loved  with  a  beautiful  and, 
.  as  he  showed  through  his  long  life,  with 

i.  H6       xi.18- 

toryofNew  an  unchanging  affection.  When  the  blow 
York."  .fe]^  Irving  was  engaged  upon  a  humor 
ous  History  of  Neiv  York.  After  he  had  recovered 
from  the  first  shock  of  grief,  he  completed  his  work 
in  hopes  of  finding  some  distraction  from  his  trouble. 
The  appearance  of  this  book  in  1809  is  a  landmark 
in  our  literature.  It  is  more  than  the  first  master 
piece  of  American  humor:  it  marks  the  appearance 
of  our  first  great  man  of  letters.  Behind  it  stretch 
the  long  years  of  Colonial  dulness;  after  it  the 
path  leads  almost  without  a  break  to  the  writers 
of  to-day.  The  History  of  New  York  is  a  serio 
comic  history  of  that  city  during  the  government 
of  the  Dutch.  Like  some  of  the  greatest  English 
satires,  it  is  a  burlesque  on  the  heroic  manner  of  the 
classic  epics;  but  besides  this,  it  is  a  parody  on  the 


LITERATURE   IN   THE  MIDDLE   STATES  121 

pedantry  and  long-windedness  of  a  certain  local  his 
torian.  Scott  declared  that  he  had  never  found  any 
thing  so  closely  resembling  the  manner  of  Dean  Swift, 
the  greatest  and  most  merciless  of  English  satirists. 
The  comparison  was  a  natural  one,  and  intended  to  be 
a  compliment;  but  we  are  nearer  the  truth  if  we 
admit  that  Irving  had  produced  an  essentially  original 
book,  good  enough  to  stand  alone,  without  hanging  on 
to  the  skirt  of  any  English  classic.  Certain  passages, 
where  the  satire  becomes  more  direct  and  pointed,  as 
in  the  sarcastic  justification  of  our  treatment  of  the 
Indians,  may  remind  us  of  the  great  English  master; 
but  the  resemblance  is  slight  and  accidental.  A 
large  part  of  Irving's  humor  is  a  simple  overflowing 
of  fun;  his  great  sense  of  the  oddities  and  absurdities 
of  his  fellow  creatures  seems  only  to  warm  his  heart 
to  them  the  more.  Where  Swift  is  venomous,  Irving 
is  kindly;  where  Swift  is  profound,  Irving  skims 
lightly  over  the  surface;  his  laughter  is  without 
malice,  and  his  jests  leave  no  wound.  But  the 
originality  of  the  History  of  New  York  lies  not  only 
in  the  peculiar  flavor  of  its  humor.  Perhaps  the 
most  wonderful  thing  about  the  book  is  the  way  in 
which  the  little  Dutch  settlement  is  made  alive  and 
real  to  our  imagination.  Irving  lived  in  a  land  where 
the  past  seemed  as  plain  and  as  ordinary  as  daylight; 
yet  he  had  somehow  contrived  to  invest  the  apparently 
commonplace  annals  of  his  native  town  with  all  the 
fascinations  of  an  age  of  fable,  and  with  the  romantic 
coloring  of  a  legendary  time.  Out  of  fragmentary 
and  unpromising  materials  he  had  created,  in  a  crude, 


122     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

new  country,  a  new  world  of  the  imagination.  He 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  manufactured  antiquity 
and  forcibly  attached  it  to  New  York.  The  History 
is  the  first  book  in  which  Irving  takes  us  to  this 
delightful  region.  We  are  in  a  world  of  ponderous 
Dutch  burghers,  fat  and  phlegmatic,  slow-witted  and 
oracular,  where  the  most  redoubtable  achievements, 
in  the  golden  age  of  Governor  Wonter  Van  Twiller, 
were  eating,  sleeping,  smoking,  drinking,  and  saying 
nothing,  and  where  the  burgomasters  were  chosen  by 
weight.  The  placid  town  of  Manhattan  rises  before 
us,  its  wooden  houses  with  their  gable  ends  of  yellow 
and  black  Dutch  brick ;  i  ts  patriarchal  burghers  dozing 
in  the  sunshine  or  by  the  fireside  over  their  eternal 
pipes;  its  bovine  inhabitants  unvexed  by  learning,  or 
by  those  inequalities  in  intellect  which  are  the  occasion 
of  emulation  and  strife.  "  There  are  two  opposite 
ways,"  says  Irving,  "by  which  some  men  make  a 
figure  in  the  world :  one  by  talking  faster  than  they 
can  think;  and  the  other,  by  holding  their  tongues 
and  not  thinking  at  all."  The  last,  we  may  infer, 
was  the  method  of  the  governor  and  not  a  few  of  his 
subjects,  in  those  days  of  tranquillity.  To  call  such 
a  world  into  being,  endow  it  with  a  charm  of  its  own, 
and  relate  its  history  with  an  unfailing  and  kindly 
humor,  was  to  show  one's  self  a  literary  artist.  The 
History  of  New  York  was  received  with  enthusiasm ; 
but  Irving  did  not  immediately  follow  up  his  success. 
His  family  were  in  easy  circumstances,  so  he  was  able 
to  continue  a  pleasant  social  life  so  congenial  to  his 
kindly  but  observing  temperament.  He  had  an 


LITERATURE   IN    THE    MIDDLE    STATES  123 

interest  in  his  brother's  business,  and  in  1815  lie  left 
for  England  to  look  after  the  affairs  of  the  firm.  The 
enterprise  was  not  prospering,  and  Irving  devoted 
himself  to  its  management  with  a  faithfulness  greatly 
to  his  credit. 

In    1816    the    firm    failed,  and    Irving    turned   to 
literature    for    support.       The    first   result    of    this 

definite   choice    of    his   career    was    The    . 

The 

Sketch-Book,  which  appeared  almost  simul-  «  sketch- 
taneously  in  America  and  England.  Ten  Book-" 
years  had  passed  since  the  publication  of  the  History 
of  New  York,  and  we  miss  in  The  Sketch-Book  the 
unrestrained  and  almost  boisterous  fun  of  its  pre 
decessor.  On  the  other  hand,  its  tone  is  gentler, 
more  thoughtful,  more  refined,  and  suffused  with 
that  indescribable  repose  and  charm  so  characteristic 
of  its  author's  maturer  work.  It  consists  of  sketches 
of  various  aspects  of  English  and  American  life, 
sometimes  in  the  form  of  a  personal  reminiscence, 
sometimes  of  a  short  story.  The  book  belongs  to 
that  eighteenth-century  school  of  essay-writing  of 
which  Addison  is  the  great  example;  but,  like  the 
essays  of  Goldsmith  or  Lamb,  Irving's  sketches  have 
a  flavor  of  their  own.  His  Westminster  Abbey  equals, 
if  it  does  not  surpass,  Addison's  famous  essay  on  the 
same  subject;  and  such  sketches  as  the  series  on 
Christmas  at  Bracebridge  Hall,  or  The  Country 
Church,  remind  us  of  the  days  of  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley.  Two  of  the  best  pieces  in  the  book  deal 
with  American  themes:  Rip  Van  Winkle  and  The 
Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow.  In  them  Irving  returned 


124     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

to  that  delineation  of  the  Dutch  life  of  N"ew  York 
which  he  had  so  happily  begun,  and  actually  gave  to 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson  that  added  charm  of  myth 
and  legend  almost  unknown  in  our  land.  The  Sketch- 
Book  was  a  triumph,  not  only  for  Irving,  but  for 
American  letters,  and  from  this  time  Irving's  place 
and  career  Avere  substantially  assured. 

Irving  now  entered  upon  a  long  life  of  literary 
production,  which  we  cannot  here  trace  in  detail. 
Contact  with  Spanish  life,  while  attached 
to  the  American  Legation  at  Madrid, 
turned  his  interest  into  a  new  channel,  and  resulted 
in  his  Life  of  Columbus  (1828),  a  more  solid  and 
ambitious  work  than  he  had  yet  attempted,  and  in 
his  Companions  of  Columbus  and  his  Conquest  of 
Granada.  Another  book  inspired  by  this  stay  in 
Spain  was  the  Tales  of  the  Alhambra  (1829),  written 
after  a  residence  in  that  old  palace  of  the  Moors. 
None  of  these  Spanish  studies  is  superior  to  the 
Conquest  of  Granada  in  an  Old-world  and  romantic 
charm.  Irving  was  not  a  deep  thinker,  nor,  in  a 
strict  sense,  a  great  scholar.  lie  did  not  attempt  to 
write  history  as  a  philosopher  or  as  a  scientific  student 
of  political  or  social  conditions:  he  wrote  it  with  the 
living  delight  of  an  artist,  conscientious  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  his  facts,  but  moved  by  the  dramatic  and 
human  interest  of  incident  and  character,  and  by  the 
romantic  fascination  of  his  theme.  Those  who  con 
sider  the  dryness  of  a  history  a  good  test  of  its  value, 
naturally  look  askance  at  Irving's  richly-colored  pic 
tures  of  chivalric  days;  but  his  magical  touch  has 


LITERATURE   IN   THE    MIDDLE    STATES  125 

helped  to  recreate  for  ns  a  chapter  in  the  splendid 
past  of  Spain,  and  thousands  have  felt  through  him 
the  gallantry  and  pathos  of  the  last  stand  of  the 
Moors,  who,  but  for  him,  would  have  passed  it  by 
unheeding. 

After  spending  a  few  years  in  England,  during 
which  he  was  given  the  honorary  degree  of  D.C.L. 
by  Oxford  University,  Irving  returned  to  America  in 
1832.  During  the  seventeen  years  of  his  absence  the 
country  had  gone  forward  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
Thousands  had  poured  westward  from  the  Atlantic 
States,  pushing  the  frontier  of  settlement  farther  and 
farther  back  into  the  wilderness.  Wealth  was  increas 
ing,  and  the  introduction  of  the  steamboat  had  given 
unsuspected  facilities  for  transportation  and  inter 
course.  Irving  explored  the  Avonders  of  this  new 
territory  in  a  journey  through  the  South  and  West, 
the  results  of  which  he  later  embodied  in  his  Tour  of 
tlte  Prairies  (1835). 

Irving's  disposition  was  affectionate  and  domestic. 
He  had  seen  and  learned  much  in  his  wanderings:  he 
now  longed  to  rest  in  a  home  of  his  own.  He  accord 
ingly  bought  a  small  place  on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  near  Tarrytown,  close  to  the  spot  which 
his  Legend  of  Sleepy  Holloiv  had  made  famous. 
Here  he  established  himself  in  a  quaint  Dutch  cot 
tage,  built  about  a  hundred  years  before  by  one  of  the 
Van  Tassels.  It  was  a  "  little,  old-fashioned  stone 
mansion,  all  made  up  of  gable-ends."  Among  its 
attractions  was  a  queer  old  weathercock  which  had 
been  brought  from  Holland,  and  in  time  the  walls 


126     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

were  covered  with  ivy  grown  from  a  slip  that  had 
come  from  Melrose  Abbey.  Irving  called  the  place 
"  Sunnyside,"  a  name  pleasantly  in  keeping  with  his 
sunshiny  and  almost  boyish  spirits.  He  reluctantly 
left  his  retreat  in  1842  to  go  to  Madrid  as  ambassador; 
bat  except  for  this  period  of  enforced  absence  it 
is  with  "  Sunnyside  "  that  the  remainder  of  his  life  is 
associated. 

Although  Irving  was  fifty  when  he  retreated  to  his 
"  roost,"  or  rest,  at  "  Sunnyside,"  he  continued  to 
write  industriously  and  with  but  little  intermission 
for  the  quarter  of  a  century  of  life  that  yet  remained 
to  him.  Among  the  most  noteworthy  of  these  later 

works   are    his    Life   of   Goldsmith,    and 
Lives  of  . 

Goldsmith      his  final  task,  the    Life  of   Washington. 
and  Wash-       The  firgt   of  thege   jg  Qne   of  the   mog{. 
ington.  r 

feet  and  enjoyable  literary  biographies  in 

our  language.  It  is  based  on  a  larger  English  work, 
and  it  does  not  profess  to  give  us  new  information. 
Its  charm  lies  rather  in  the  kindly  warmth  of  appre 
ciation  that  pervades  it,  in  its  latent  humor,  and  in 
the  easy  flow  and  beauty  of  its  style.  The  shiftless 
but  lovable  Goldsmith  has  strong  points  of  resem 
blance  to  Irving's  greatest  contribution  to  the  char 
acters  of  fiction — that  most  graceless,  amiable,  and 
lovable  of  vagabonds,  Rip  van  "Winkle.  Such  a  sub 
ject  was  one  to  arouse  Irving's  sympathies  and  to  call 
out  his  best  powers. 

To  write  a  successful  life  of  "Washington  demanded 
abilities  of  a  widely  different  kind.  The  career  of  a 
great  soldier,  statesman,  and  patriot  must  be  closely 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    STATES  127 

related  to  large  national  issues;  such  a  biography 
is  part  of  a  nation's  history,  and  it  demands  the 
historian's  largeness  of  view.  Such  a  subject  was 
less  directly  within  the  scope  of  Irving's  peculiar 
genius.  The  book  was  in  five  large  volumes,  and 
appeared  between  1855  and  1859.  It  was  written 
towards  the  close  of  Irving's  life,  when  he  had  less 
vigor  than  formerly  to  complete  so  large  an.  undertak 
ing,  and  he  himself  complained  that  the  work  dragged 
sadly  towards  the  last.  The  book,  if  not  the  most 
characteristic  of  Irving's  writings,  is  nevertheless  well 
done.  It  is  the  result  of  careful  research;  it  is  simple 
and  direct  in  style,  quiet  and  well-balanced  in  tone, 
and  it  brings  Washington  before  us  with  undeniable 
fairness  and  power.  With  the  Life  of  Washington, 
Irving's  work  ended;  he  died  at  "  Sunnyside  "  within 
a  year  after  the  final  volume  had  been  given  to  the 
public. 

Irving's  literary  career  covers  an  eventful  half- 
century  in  our  literary  history.  When  he  began  to 
write,  the  literature  of  the  imagination 
could  hardly  be  said  to  exist  among  us, 
and  the  puritanic  gloom  which  darkened 
so  many  of  our  productions  was  unrelieved  by  any 
kindly  light  of  humor.  In  England,  American 
books  were  almost  universally  despised  or  ignored. 
Before  Irving  laid  down  his  pen,  a  second  and 
yet  abler  group  of  writers  had  succeeded  that  to 
which  he  himself  belonged;  and  our  literature  had  at 
length  won  for  itself  a  hearing  and  a  respectable  foot 
ing  beyond  the  seas.  Irving  had  no  inconsiderable 


128     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

part  in  bringing  about  this  great  change.  He  is  com 
monly  said  to  be  the  first  writer  to  make  our  litera 
ture  respected  abroad.  Thackeray  called  him  "  the 
first  ambassador  whom  the  New  World  of  Letters 
sent  to  the  Old,"  and  added  that  he  taught  millions 
of  his  countrymen  to  love  England.  It  was  thus  no 
small  part  of  his  work  that  he  helped  the  two  greatest 
English-speaking  nations  of  the  earth  to  understand 
and  appreciate  each  other.  As  a  writer,  his  literary 
sense  was  finer  and  more  delicate,  his  art  altogether 
on  a  higher  plane  than  that  of  any  American  who 
preceded  him.  Irving's  temperament  was  quickly 
responsive  to  his  surroundings.  He  had  a  healthy 
enjoyment  in  the  beauty  of  the  world  and  the  society 
of  his  fellow-creatures;  he  had  a  shrewd  perception 
of  that  which  lent  itself  to  literary  treatment;  being 
touched  alike  by  the  odd  or  ludicrous,  and  by  the 
quaint,  romantic,  and  picturesque.  Hence  his  writ 
ings  are  obviously  inspired  from  without  rather  than 
from  within,  and  his  descriptions  of  Dutch,  Eng 
lish,  Spanish,  and  wild  Western  life  are  the  reflections 
of  his  successive  experiences.  A  great  part  of  the  fas 
cination  of  Irving's  writings  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  are  the  expression  of  a  singularly  pure  and  lovely 
nature.  The  love  he  inspired  in  both  England  and 
America  was  due  not  merely  to  his  writings,  but  to 
himself.  Like  Eip  van  Winkle,  he  was  by  nature 
something  of  a  loiterer;  he  became  a  worker  later 
from  a  manly  sense  of  duty.  But  from  both  his  char 
acter  and  works  a  certain  masculine  harshness  and 
power,  characteristic  of  sterner  and  stronger  souls,  are 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   MIDDLE   STATES  129 

notably  absent.  lie  draws  us  to  him  by  a  humor  that 
is  free  from  bitterness,  by  his  unfeigned  goodness, 
and  by  his  love  and  sympathy  for  all  mankind.  He 
wrote  modestly  of  his  aims:  "  If  I  can  now  and  then 
penetrate  the  gathering  film  of  misanthropy,  prompt 
a  benevolent  view  of  human  nature,  and  make  my 
reader  more  in  good  humor  with  his  fellow-beings 
and  with  himself,  surely — surely  I  shall  not  then 
have  written  entirely  in  vain." 

STUDY  LIST 
IRVING 

1.  Essays.      "The    Country    Church,"    "Westminster 
Abbey,''  "  Stratford-on-Avon,"  and  the  Christmas  Series, 
in  The  Sketch  Book;  and  the  "Interior  of  the  Alhambra" 
and  "  The  Alhambra  by  Moonlight "  iu  TJie  Alhambra. 

2.  Stories.     "  Rip  Van  Winkle,"  "  The  Legend  of  Sleepy 
Hollow,"  and  "The  Spectre  Bridegroom,"  in   The  Sketch 
Book;  "  Dolph  Heyliger"  and  "  The  Stout  Gentleman  "  in 
Bracebridge  Hall ;  "  Wolfert  Webber  "  in  Tales  of  a  Travel 
ler.     The  stories  in  TJie  Alhambra  will  be  found  delight 
fully  suggestive  of  the  Arabian  Nights.     Selections  from 
the  Sketch  Book  are  published  in  the  Riverside  Literature 
Series  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.).     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 
publish  a  specially  annotated  ' '  student's  edition  "  of  Tales 
of  a   Traveller,    TJie  Alhambra,   and    TJie  Sketch  Book. 
Another  edition  of  the  Tales  of  a  Traveller,  annotated  by 
Prof.  Matthews  and  Prof.  Carpenter,  is  published  in  Long 
mans'  English  Classics. 

3.  Life  of  Oliver  Goldsmith ;  Conquest  of  Granada. 

4.  Biography  and  Criticism.     Life,   by  his   nephew, 
Pierre  M.  Irving  ;  by  David  J.  Hill,  in  American  Authors 
Series  ;  by  Chas.   Dudley  Warner,  in  American  Men  of 


130     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Letters  Series.  For  criticisms,  see  "Whipple's  American 
Literature  ;  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social  Essays  ;  Howells's 
My  Literary  Passions  ;  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics;  Thack 
eray's  "Nil  Nisi  Bonum,"  in  the  Roundabout  Papers; 
and  Studies  of  Irving,  containing  essays  and  addresses 
by  C.  D.  Warner,  Bryant,  and  George  P.  Putnam. 

JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  (1789-1851) 

The  quality  of  Irving's  genius  is  another  proof  that 
American  literature  is,  as  a  whole,  but  the  continua 
tion  of  English  literature  under  new  conditions.  He 
works  in  an  atmosphere  of  Old-world  culture,  and 
shows  no  trace  of  that  largeness  of  design  and  crude- 
ness  of  execution,  of  that  unregulated  power,  which 
belong  to  the  vigorous  but  undisciplined  period  of 
youth.  His  style,  formed  on  the  best  English  models, 
has  that  high  finish  and  careful  restraint  characteristic 
of  an  ancient  civilisation.  The  subdued  tone  of 
much  of  his  work  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  mild 
and  tranquil  afternoon  in  autumn,  when  everything 
is  suggestive  of  quiet,  contemplation,  fulfilment,  and 
repose.  His  inspiration  is  from  the  past  rather  than 
from  the  future.  Even  in  the  midst  of  the  eager 
rush  of  young  America  his  first  instinct  is  to  turn  to 
the  life  and  legends  of  a  time  that  has  gone  by. 

With  Cooper,  on  the  other  hand,  Irving's  fellow- 
worker  in  the  building  of  a  national  literature,  the 
case  was  almost  precisely  the  reverse.  While  not  free 
from  foreign  influences,  Cooper  is  far  more  inde 
pendent  of  them,  and  in  his  sympathy  with  a  primi 
tive  life,  his  crudity  of  style,  his  lavish  vigor,  he 


JAMES      FENIMORE     COOPER 


LITERATURE   IN    TIIE    MIDDLE   STATES  131 

represents,  as  Irving  could  not  do,  the  stirring  spirit  of 
a  young  people.  Cooper  himself  had  the  masculine, 
fighting  temperament  of  the  man  of  action.  He  lived 
a  more  stirring  out-of-doors  life  than  that  which  usu 
ally  fulls  to  the  lot  of  men  of  letters,  so  that  both  by 
nature  and  experience  he  was  fitted  to  be  the  novelist 
of  incident  and  adventure. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  was  born  in  Burlington, 
New  Jersey,  a  sleepy  old  town  on  the  Delaware,  in 
1789.  He  was  destined,  however,  to  spend 
his  early  years  in  far  different  surround- 
ings,  for  when  he  was  only  about  a  year 
old  his  father,  who  owned  a  large  tract  of  land  in  a 
then  unsettled  region  of  Xew  York  near  Otsego 
Lake,  turned  his  back  on  civilization  and  settled 
there  with  his  family.  In  his  novel  The  Pioneers 
Cooper  has  given  us  a  faithful  picture  of  this  region 
as  he  knew  it  in  his  childhood.  It  lay  on  the  outer 
edge  of  settlement,  and  the  axe  had  made  but  few 
clearings  in  the  dense  woods  that  shut  in  the  lake. 
Westwaid  stretched  the  solemn  and  almost  unbroken 
wilderness.  So  remote  was  it,  that  a  panic  was  at  one 
time  created  in  the  little  settlement  by  rumors  of  an 
Indian  outbreak.  Cooper  was  thus  made  familiar 
from  childhood  with  the  surroundings  and  incidents 
of  border  life,  and  his  after-work  bears  witness  to 
the  depth  and  accuracy  of  these  first  impressions. 
And  to  a  woodsman's  knowledge  of  the  woods  he 
added  a  seaman's  knowledge  of  the  sea.  Dismissed 
from  Yale  College  for  some  boyish  outbreak,  it  was 
decided  that  he  should  enter  the  navy.  He  accord- 


132     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

ingly  spent  about  a  year  on  a  merchant  vessel  as  a 
common  sailor,  this  being  then  the  customary  train 
ing  for  a  naval  career.  After  about  three  years  in  the 
navy  he  married,  and,  yielding  to  his  wife's  wishes, 
resigned  his  commission  and  returned  to  country  life. 
His  active  disposition  found  an  interest  in  farming. 
For  ten  years  after  his  retirement  from  the  navy  he 
showed  no  inclination  towards  a  literary  career,  and 
up  to  the  age  of  thirty  he  had  published  nothing. 
Even  then  his  sudden  plunge  into  authorship  was  due 
to  accident  rather  than  to  any  literary  or  bookish 
tastes.  Impressed  with  the  shortcomings  of  a  story 
of  English  life  lie  had  been  reading,  he  said  impul 
sively  that  he  believed  he  could  write  a  better  story 
himself.  His  wife  challenged  him  to  prove  it,  and 
with  little  or  no  thought  of  publication  he  began  a 
novel  to  justify  his  claim.  He  was  encouraged  to 
complete  the  venture,  which  appeared  under  the  title 
Precaution  in  1820.  The  scene  was  laid  in  England, 
probably  because  the  original  intention  was  to  outdo 
an  English  novelist  on  his  own  ground.  The  book 
was  published  anonymously,  and  was  popularly  be 
lieved  to  be  the  work  of  an  Englishman.  It  met  with 
some  favor,  but  chance  had  led  Cooper  into  the  draw 
ing-room  conversations  of  polite  society,  a  region 
particularly  unsuited  to  his  powers,  and  he  had  no 
real  knowledge  of  the  upper-class  English  life  which 
he  attempted  to  describe.  It  is  probable  that  Cooper 
would  not  have  repeated  his  experiment  had  not  some 
of  his  friends  accused  him  of  lack  of  patriotism  in 
thus  abandoning  his  own  country  for  a  foreign  theme. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   MIDDLE    STATES  133 

To  vindicate  himself  from  this  charge  Cooper  wrote  a 
second  novel,  Tlte  Spy,  a  story  of  our  Revolution,  which 
was  published  in  1821-22.  In  its  way  the  publication 
of  The  Spy  is  almost  as  memorable  an  event  in  our 
literary  history  as  the  publication  of  Irving's  History 
of  Xcw  York.  Cooper  had  found  a  subject  congenial 
to  his  powers,  and  had  begun  to  do  for  the  American 
novel  a  work  comparable  to  that  of  Irving  in  his 
especial  sphere.  The  importance  of  the  book  was 
almost  instantly  recognized.  A  writer  in  the  North 
A  nerican  Review  for  1822  declared  that  Cooper  had 
"  laid  the  foundations  of  American  romance,"  and 
that  he  was  the  first  who  "  deserved  the  appellation 
of  a  distinguished  American  novel-writer."  He  had 
proved,  the  same  critic  continued,  that  the  novelist 
might  find  in  American  life  a  suitable  and  practically 
new  field  for  his  art.  But  the  success  of  The  Spy 
went  far  beyond  the  verdict  of  the  critics,  for  Cooper 
at  his  best  got  directly  at  the  large  body  of  readers. 
In  spite  of  our  provincial  deference  to  English  opinion, 
America  delighted  in  it  without  waiting  for  foreign 
sanction,  and  it  was  read  with  eager  pleasure  in  Eng 
land  and  France.  The  success  of  The  Spy  was  not 
altogether  due  to  the  novelty  of  its  subject.  With 
many  of  Cooper's  characteristic  faults,  it  has  also  his 
characteristic  merits.  It  is  full  of  scenes  that  show 
the  vigor  and  dash  of  his  narrative  power;  and  its  cen 
tral  character,  the  humble  pedler  Harvey  Birch,  cool, 
brave,  incorruptible,  quick  in  resource  in  times  of 
peril,  is  a  noble  example  of  that  homely  heroism  in 
the  portrayal  of  which  Cooper  excelled.  Cooper's 


134     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

originality  in  choice  of  subjects  was  even  more 
strongly  shown  by  his  next  stories,  The  Pioneers  and 
The  Pilot,  both  of  which  appeared  in  1823.  The 
former  is  a  story  of  the  woods,  the  latter  of  the  sea. 
Thus  almost  simultaneously  Cooper  showed  himself 
master  in  two  new  spheres  of  fiction:  in  one  of  them 
he  stands  almost  without  a  rival;  while  in  the  other, 
although  lie  has  had  many  followers,  he  has  seldom, 
if  ever,  been  excelled. 

Cooper  left  home  in  1826  for  an  extended  stay  in 
Europe.  Several  books  were  the  direct  outcome  of 
his  travels,  but  none  of  them  rank  with  his  best  work, 
as,  unlike  Irving,  all  his  truest  inspiration  came  not 
from  the  Old  World,  but  from  the  Xew.  After  his 
return  to  the  United  States  in  1833  he  engaged  in  a 
number  of  bitter  and  unfortunate  controversies,  which 
made  him  extremely  unpopular  for  many  years.  An 
intense  patriot,  he  found  many  things  on  his  return 
to  his  own  country  which  he  thought  should  be 
amended.  With  the  highest  intentions,  he  was  com 
bative,  devoid  of  tact,  and  both  acutely  sensitive  to 
criticism  himself  and  outspoken  in  his  criticism  of 
others.  But  unwise  as  he  may  have  been  in  entering 
into  these  disputes,  our  strongest  feeling  is  one  of 
admiration  for  the  unfaltering  manliness,  ability,  and 
courage  with  which  he  contended  almost  single- 
handed  against  his  detractors.  During  these  years  he 
wrote  rapidly  and  incessantly,  producing  some  of  his 
best  and  some  of  his  poorest  books.  In  addition  to 
many  novels  he  published  a  careful  and  excellent 
History  of  the  United  States  Navy  (1839).  He  died 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    STATES  135 

at  Cooperstown  in  1851,  in  the  midst  of  those  scenes 
of  his  boyhood  which  he  had  made  famous. 

The  real  greatness  of  Cooper  as  a  romance- writer 
has  been  much  obscured  by  his  obvious  faults  and 
by  the  changes  in  literary  taste.  His  style 
is  full  of  defects,  for  he  wrote  rapidly, 
often  carelessly,  and  he  lacked  literary 
training.  He  was  successful  only  within  certain 
limits,  and  frequently  failed  because  he  did  not  recog 
nize  his  limitations,  and,  unlike  his  own  Pathfinder^ 
sought  to  go  beyond  his  gifts.  The  lack  of  judgment, 
which  often  led  him  to  attempt  what  he  was  unfitted 
to  perform,  has  made  his  books  of  most  unequal 
value,  and  the  mixture  of  so  much  that  is  inferior 
tends  to  blind  us  to  his  genuine  excellence. 

While  it  would  be  absurd  to  ignore  Cooper's  faults, 
readers  of  to-day  seem  to  be  much  more  in  danger 
of  forgetting  his  merits.  His  familiar  title  "  the 
American  Scott"  is  apt  to  make  us  undervalue  his 
original  power.  His  method  indeed  is  naturally  sim 
ilar  to  that  of  the  great  master  of  modern  romance, 
but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Cooper  distinctly 
widened  the  sphere  of  romantic  fiction  by  carrying  it 
into  new  fields.  Scott  found  his  inspiration  in 
feudalism;  Cooper  in  the  untamed  freedom  of  the 
wilderness  and  the  sea.  Scott  had  predecessors  in  his 
delight  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  Cooper  wrote  prac 
tically  as  a  pioneer,  and  added  anew  domain  to  litera 
ture.  Through  him  the  hardy  and  adventurous  life 
of  our  western  frontier  first  took  its  place  in  fiction; 
he  it  was  who  made  the  crafts  and  cruelties  of  Indian 


136     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

warfare,  the  obscure  heroism  of  the  backwoodsman, 
the  interminable  solitudes  of  the  American  forest,  a 
reality  in  the  imagination  of  Europe.  Cooper's  best 
and  most  comprehensive  picture  of  border-life  is  of 
course  to  be  found  in  his  famous  "  Leatherstocking 
Tales,"  so  called  from  one  of  the  many  names  given  to 
the  hero.  These  books,  The  Deer  slayer  (1841),  The 
Last  of  the  Mohicans  (1826),  The  Pathfinder  (1840), 
The  Pioneers  (1823),  and  The  Prairie  (1827),  to 
name  them  in  the  order  in  which  they  should  be  read, 
are,  taken  together,  Cooper's  greatest  contribution  to 
literature.  Cooper  styled  them  "a  drama  in  five 
acts:"  it  would  probably  be  more  accurate  to  call 
them  a  rough  prose  epic  of  the  deeds  of  a  Xew- World 
hero,  nobler  intrinsically  than  Achilles  or  ^Eneas.  The 
stories  show  us  this  simple-hearted  hunter  and  scout, 
Natty  Bumppo  or  Leatherstocking,  at  five  successive 
stages  of  his  long  and  hazardous  life.  We  see  him  on 
his  first  war-path,  humble  as  one  who  has  not  been 
proved;  we  see  him  in  the  fulness  of  his  marvellous 
skill  and  sagacity ;  and  we  see  him  finally  when  age 
has  come  upon  him,  his  friends  dead,  his  very  dog 
feeble  and  toothless,  his  famous  rifle,  Killdeer,  out-of- 
date,  and  ready,  like  its  owner,  to  be  laid  aside.  To 
thus  show  the  life  and  development  of  a  single  char 
acter  in  five  successive  novels  is  a  memorable  achieve 
ment,  and  the  success  with  which  this  has  been 
accomplished  is  one  of  Cooper's  highest  claims  to  dis 
tinction.  Pure-minded,  simple-hearted,  ignorant  of 
books,  but  skilled  in  every  sign  of  the  forest;  with  a 
deep  sense  of  religion,  half  primeval,  half  Christian, 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   MIDDLE   STATES  13? 

with  an  aboriginal  nearness  to  nature  and  an  inveter 
ate  hatred  of  towns, — Leatherstocking  has  rightfully 
taken  his  place  among  the  noblest  and  most  original 
of  the  great  characters  of  fiction.  And  Leather- 
stocking  is  more  than  interesting  to  us  as  an  indi 
vidual;  like  most  of  the  great  characters  which  the 
human  imagination  has  created,  he  interests  us  partly 
for  himself  and  partly  because  of  what  he  represents. 
lie  is  as  distinctly  a  typical  product  of  our  border  life 
as  Rob  Roy  is  of  the  forays  of  the  Scottish  Highlands 
or  Achilles  of  the  heroic  age  of  Greece.  He  is  a 
national  hero:  young  as  we  are,  he  is  ours.  Living 
beyond  the  fringe  of  civilization  and  moving  in  front 
of  the  wave  of  settlement,  his  life  is  indirectly  asso 
ciated  with  that  subduing  of  the  West  which  is  per 
haps  the  most  'wonderful  and  heroic  achievement  of 
the  American  people.  The  greatness  of  this  national 
movement,  while  it  enters  into  the  Leatherstocking 
stories  only  as  a  kind  of  secondary  motive,  yet  gives 
to  the  whole  a  certain  dimly  recognized  breadth  and 
epic  largeness  of  tone.  In  1740-45,  when  in  the 
Deerslayer  its  hero  begins  his  career,  Otsego  Lake  is 
yet  unmapped  by  the  king's  surveyors;  in  the 
Pioneers,  some  sixty  years  later,  the  country  about  it 
has  been  taken  up  by  the  settlers,  and  the  old  hunter, 
compelled  to  retreat  before  them,  grumbles  that  he 
loses  himself  in  the  clearings;  finally,  in  The  Prairie, 
which  carries  us  to  a  period  just  after  the  Louisiana 
purchase  of  1803,  we  are  shown  the  emigrant  train  of 
the  indefatigable  settler  pushing  into  the  treeless 
plains  of  the  far  West.  Leatherstocking's  part  in  this 


138     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

advance  is  not  that  of  the  settler  but  the  pioneer;  he 
even  grumbles  to  find  the  settler  following  at  his 
heels;  yet,  like  Daniel  Boone,  he  is  a  heroic  figure  in 
one  of  the  heroic  episodes  of  our  history. 

And  as  Cooper,  in  these  and  other  stories,  is  the 
novelist  of  the  American  forest,  so,  in  such  a  novel 
as  The  Pilot,  he  is  as'  truly  the  novelist  of  the  sea. 
Here,  too,  he  is  distinctly  original  in  his  choice  of  sub 
ject.  The  life  of  the  sailor  had  indeed  been  inciden 
tally  introduced  into  English  stories  before  his  time: 
it  entered  into  Robinson  Crusoe,  into  the  Humphrey 
Clinker  of  Tobias  Smollett,  and  shortly  before  Cooper 
wrote  The  Pilot  Scott  had  touched  on  it  in  The 
Pirate,  although  with  a  landsman's  ignorance  of  nauti 
cal  affairs;  but  Cooper  is  admittedly  the  first  writer  of 
genuine  sea-stories,  and  in  this  the  creator  of  what  was 
virtually  a  new  order  of  fiction.  In  both  of  these 
great  regions  of  his  art,  the  woods  and  the  sea,  Cooper 
is  remarkable  for  the  truth  and  vividness  of  his 
descriptions  of  nature  in  her  unconfined  and  uncon- 
taminated  beauty  and  power.  He  had  lived  with 
nature  from  a  child,  and  if  his  descriptions  of  her  lack 
literary  finish,  this  is  more  than  made  up  by  that  in 
tense  feeling  of  reality  which  his  life-long  understand 
ing  of  her  enabled  him  to  convey.  He  is  so  true  in 
this  that  he  makes  us  live  in  the  scenes  he  describes, 
for  the  smell  of  the  woods  is  in  them  and  the  salty 
breath  of  the  sea.  Nor  is  Cooper  to  be  despised  as  a 
painter  of  character.  Of  course  his  heroines  are  com 
monly  but  lay-figures  for  the  development  of  his 
plots;  of  course  he  was  incapable  of  presenting  human 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    STATES  139 

nature,  and  especially  civilized  human  nature,  in  all 
its  delicate  shades  of  difference;  but  in  one  region  he 
was  supreme.  It  was  his  to  show  us  the  plain,  unlet 
tered  man,  with  something  of  the  primitive  hero  under 
his  humble  dress;  and  Harvey  Birch,  Pathfinder,  or 
Long  Tom  Coffin,  stands  worthily  beside  those  great 
kindred  creations  Adam  Bede  and  Jeanie  Deans. 

The  action  of  his  stories  often  lags;  as  a  rule,  his 
plots  are  crudely  constructed  and  improbable;  but  he 
rises  to  a  crisis,  and  his  dash  and  vigor  in  single  scenes 
cannot  well  be  surpassed.  We  find  it  hard  to  parallel 
the  dramatic  force  and  manly  power  of  such  descrip 
tions  as  that  of  the  wreck  of  the  Ariel  in  The  Pilot, 
the  defence  of  the  cave  in  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans, 
or  the  discovery  of  the  body  of  Asa  in  The  Prairie. 

High-minded,  robust,  manly,  such  qualities  fitted 
Cooper,  full  of  faults  and  prejudices  as  he  was,  to  be 
a  truly  national  writer.  He  represented  us  in  a  way 
that  even  Irving  could  not,  for  through  him  the 
readers  of  Paris  or  London  forgot  for  a  time  the  spirit 
of  the  Old  "World  to  identify  themselves  with  the 
spirit  of  the  New. 

STUDY    LIST 
COOPER 

1.  Works.  Cooper's  "  Leatherstocking  Tales  "  arc  house 
hold  works,  and  need  no  recommendation.  In  addition, 
The  Spy  and  one  or  two  of  the  "Sea  Tales,"  such  as  Tlie 
Pilot  and  Tlie  Red  Rover,  should  be  read.  Tlie  Last  of  the 
Mohicans,  edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Professor 
Richardson,  is  published  in  Longmans'  English  Classics. 


140     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

2.  Biography  and  Criticism.  The  only  biography  of 
Cooper  is  Professor  Lounsbury's  Life,  in  the  American 
Men  of  Letters  Series.  See  also  the  introductions  to  the 
" Leatherstocking  Tales"  and  the  "Sea  Tales,"  in  the 
edition  of  Cooper's  novels  edited  by  his  daughter,  Susan 
Fenimore  Cooper  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.).  Considerable 
information  is  to  be  found  in  T.  S.  Livermore's  History  of 
Cooperstown.  For  criticism,  see  Bryant's  Discourse  on 
Cooper ;  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics ;  and  an  interesting 
allusion  in  Thackeray's  "On  a  Peal  of  Bells,"  in  the 
Roundabout  Papers.  For  an  extreme  criticism  of  Cooper, 
see  "  Fenimore  Cooper's  Literary  Offences,"  in  How  to  Tell 
a  Story  ;  and  other  Essays,  by  Mark  Twain. 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  (1794-1878) 

Although  a  few  creditable  lyrics  had  been  produced 
before  his  time,  Bryant  is  the  earliest  of  our  greater 
poets,  and  fairly  deserves  his  title  "  the  Father  of 
American  Song."  He  stands  with  Irving  and  Cooper 
at  the  beginning  of  the  modern  period  of  our  litera 
ture,  holding  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  its  poetry 
that  Irving  does  to  its  prose.  Bryant  is  associated 
with  the  group  of  writers  commonly  known  as  the 
"  Knickerbocker  School,"  which  during  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century  made  New  York  the  literary 
center  of  the  country.  But  while  his  career  identifies 
him  with  New  York,  he  belongs  to  New  England  by 
birth,  inheritance,  and  early  surroundings.  He  came 
of  sound  Puritan  stock,  his  ancestors  on  both  bis 
fatber's  and  his  mother's  side  having  come  over  in 
the  Mayflower.  He  was  born  at  Cummington,  a 


WILLIAM     CULLEN     BRYANT 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   MIDDLE   STATES  141 

quiet  town  in  western  Massachusetts,  in  1794,  and 
grew  up  in  the  simple,  hard-working, 
wholesome  atmosphere  characteristic  of  ^&l 
New  England  a  century  ago.  In  his  de 
scription  of  the  neighborhood  of  Bryant's  early  home 
George  William  Curtis  writes  that  "  the  very  spirit 
of  primitive  Xew  England  brooded  over  the  thinly- 
peopled  hills  and  in  the  little  villages  and  farms."  * 
Drawn  to  nature  by  an  instinctive  sympathy  and  sur 
rounded  by  her  influence,  the  boy  came  to  know  her 
as  a  naturalist  and  to  love  her  as  a  poet.  He  tells  us 
that  from  his  "  earliest  years  "  he  was  a  "  delighted 
observer  of  external  nature."  Two  other  influences, 
both  of  them  characteristic  of  early  New  England, 
were  about  him  from  his  youth — religion  and  books. 
He  was  brought  up  in  the  solemn  if  severe  faith  of 
his  Puritan  ancestors,  and  he  was  a  reader,  especially 
a  reader  of  poetry,  from  his  childhood.  After  a  year 
at  Williams  College  he  studied  law,  but  only  to 
abandon  it  for  literature,  as  Brockden  Brown,  Irving, 
and  so  many  others  had  done  before  him.  His  lit 
erary  tastes  declared  themselves  very  early.  Shortly 
after  he  left  college,  when  not  yet  eighteen,  he  wrote 
Thanatopsis,  the  noblest  verse  produced  in  America 
up  to  that  time.  When  a  law-student  he  was  rebuked 
by  his  preceptor  for  reading  Wordsworth's  Lyrical 
Ballads  instead  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries  on  the 
I^vs  of  England.  lie  worked  manfully  at  his  pro 
fession,  for  it  was  not  in  him  to  shirk  an  obligation, 

*  Commemoration  address  on  Bryant  in  1878. 


142     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

but  his  verses  suggest  to  us  the  effort  it  cost  him. 
Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1815  he 
wrote  sadly  that  the  bright  vision  which  had  once 
come  to  him  in  the  silence  of  nature  had  faded  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  world.  In  1817  Thanatopsis  ap 
peared  in  the  North  American  Revieiv,  followed  by 
another  masterpiece,  To  a  Water-fowl,  in  the  year 
following.  These  contributions  brought  him  at  once 
into  notice,  and  he  was  asked  to  write  the  annual  poem 
for  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  at  Harvard.  This 
poem,  The  Ages,  was  published  with  several  others  in 
1821,  the  year  of  the  appearance  of  Irving's  Sketch 
book  and  Cooper's  Spy. 

After  an  honest  effort  to  get  on  in  his  profession, 
Bryant  came  to  New  York  and  accepted  the  post  of 
joint  editor  of  the  New  York  Reviciv  and  Athenceum 
Magazine  (1823).  This  periodical,  a  new  venture, 
proved  to  be  short-lived,  and  in  1826  Bryant  became 
associate  editor  of  The  Evening  Post.  From  this 
time  journalism  absorbed  a  large  part  of  his  time  and 
energies.  His  connection  with  The  Evening  Post 
stretched  over  more  than  half  a  century,  and  through 
that  long  and  critical  period  he  did  his  work  con 
scientiously  and  well.  Living  in  the  tumult  of  a 
great  city,  the  sanctifying  presence  of  nature  was  with 
him  to  the  end.  Through  all  the  exacting  duties  of 
journalism  he  found  rest  and  pleasure  in  turning  from 
the  discussions  of  the  hour,  or  the  heat  of  political 
controversy,  to  those  influences  of  the  woods  and  fields 
and  open  sky  which  had  been  his  earliest  inspiration. 
These  seasons  of  escape  and  refreshment  found  from 


LITERATURE    IN    THE    MIDDLE   STATES  143 

time  to  time  an  expression  in  his  verse  and  determined 
its  prevailing  tone.  In  A  Winter  Piece  he  alludes  to 
that  instinct  which  seems  from  the  first  to  have  sent 
him  to  the  woods  to  be  healed : 

"  When  the  ills  of  life 

Had  chafed  my  spirit,  when  the  unsteady  pulse 
Beat  with  strange  flutterings,  I  would  wander  forth 
And  seek  the  woods.  .  .   . 

While  I  stood 

In  Nature's  loneliness,  I  was  with  one 
With  whom  I  early  grew  familiar, — one 
Who  never  had  a  frown  for  me,  whose  voice 
Never  rebuked  me  for  the  hour  I  stole 
From  cares  I  loved  not,  but  of  which  the  world 
Deems  highest,  to  converse  with  her." 

As  nearly  all  of  Bryant's  inspiration  comes  from  the 
same  source,  his  poetry  is  for  the  most  part  the  utter 
ance  of  a  single  mood.  He  did  not  develop  or  improve 
as  a  poet;  from  the  first  he  is  master  of  his  especial 
style,  and  the  spirit  of  his  earliest  verse  is  the  spirit 
of  his  last. 

Bryant  became  a  prominent  and  dignified  figure  in 
the  social  and  intellectual  life  of  his  adopted  city. 
Various  collections  of  his  poems  had  appeared  from 
time  to  time,  and  in  1870-71  he  published  a  blank- 
verse  translation  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  which  has 
that  nobility  and  dignity  peculiar  to  his  poetic 
manner.  His  long  life  extends  over  nearly  the  entire 
history  of  our  strictly  national  literature.  When  he 
was  born  Franklin  had  only  been  dead  four  years, 
and  Brockden  Brown  had  not  published  his  earliest 
romance;  when  he  died  in  1878,  the  work  of  Emerson, 


144     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Longfellow,  and  their  great  contemporaries  was 
nearly  ended,  and  a  yet  later  generation,  the  writers 
of  our  own  day,  were  pushing  to  the  front.  Before 
Bryant  had  finished  his  work,  Irving  and  Cooper,  the 
other  members  of  that  early  triumvirate, 
nad  passed  away.  Bryant  alone  remained, 
honored  by  his  successors  as  the  patri 
arch  of  our  national  literature.  Bryant  is  not  only 
the  earliest  of  our  greater  poets:  he  stands  alone 
in  our  literature  by  the  individual  tone  and  quality 
of  his  work,  having  absolutely  no  predecessors  in 
America,  and  founding  no  school.  Thanatopsis  was 
not  merely  the  greatest  poem  written  in  America  up 
to  the  time  of  its  appearance:  it  was  totally  distinct 
in  manner  and  spirit  from  anything  which  we  had 
heretofore  produced.  The  poem  has  that  classic 
severity,  dignity,  and  noble  seriousness  for  which 
so  much  of  Bryant's  best  work  is  remarkable.  Its 
theme  is  at  once  simple  and  comprehensive;  the 
solemn  fact  of  death,  divested  of  those  painful  asso 
ciations  which  make  us  tremble,  stands  out  against 
the  illimitable  background  of  nature,  as  a  part  of 
the  universal  plan.  There  is  no  direct  promise 
of  immortality,  but  we  are  elevated  and  sustained 
by  the  contemplation  of  the  unfailing  natural  processes 
of  birth  and  decay.  At  the  close  the  injunction 
to  live  worthily  rings  in  our  ears  like  a  trumpet- 
call.  There  is  nothing  distinctly  Christian  in  the 
poem,  but  in  its  high  seriousness  and  in  its  uncom 
promising  call  to  duty  it  is  in  keeping  with  the 
essential  inner  spirit  of  the  English  people  from  the 


LITERATURE    IX   THE   MIDDLE    STATES  145 

days  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  gleemen  to  those  of  Milton 
and  of  Browning.  The  verse  has  a  majestic  movement 
adapted  to  its  solemn  theme : 

"Theliills 

Rock-ribbed  and  ancient  as  the  sun  ;  the  vales 
Stretching  in  pensive  quietness  between  ; 
The  venerable  woods  ;  rivers  that  move 
In  majesty,  and  the  complaining  brooks 
That  make  the  meadows  green  ;  and,  poured  round  all, 
Old  ocean's  gray  and  melancholy  waste, — 
Are  but  the  solemn  decorations  all 
Of  the  great  tomb  of  man.'' 

Quite  apart  from  its  meaning,  the  sound  of  this 
verse,  with  its  suggestions  of  Milton,  of  Shakespeare, 
or  of  Wordsworth,  tells  us  that  American  poetry  has 
reached  a  new  stage  in  its  development.  The  influ 
ence  of  Pope  had  ceased  to  be  supreme  in  England 
some  time  before  Bryant  wrote  Tlianatopsis.  During 
the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  school 
of  poets  had  asserted  themselves,  who  discarded  Pope's 
favorite  metre,  and  wrote  with  a  fresh  inspiration  of 
nature  and  of  man.  This  movement  against  Pope 
and  all  that  he  represented  culminated  in  the  poetry 
of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  during  the  end  of  the 
last  and  the  early  part  of  the  present  century.  But 
while  the  English  poets  were  rebelling  against  Pope 
the  American  verse-writers  continued  to  imitate  him, 
and  Bryant  is  the  first  among  us  to  show  decidedly  by 
his  spirit  and  metre  that  he  had  cast  him  off.  In  a 
juvenile  poem  Bryant  himself  was  one  of  Pope's  many 
imitators,  but  he  came  under  the  spell  of  Words- 


146      INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

worth,  and  in  Thanatopsis  we  see  that  the  new 
spirit  already  dominant  in  England  has  at  last  reached 
us  here.  Thus  Bryant's  real  predecessors  are  not 
American,  but  English,  lie  is  the  spiritual  descend 
ant  not  of  D wight  or  Barlow,  but  of  Milton,  Cow- 
per,  and  Wordsworth.  Bat  although  from  this  aspect 
Bryant  represents  the  English  influence  on  our  litera 
ture,  he  is  both  truly  American  and  individual.  A 
true  poet  can  be  affected  by  foreign  influences  without 
becoming  a  servile  copyist.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  Bryant's  delight  in  nature  was  less  inborn 
than  that  of  Wordsworth  himself ;  nor  can  we  doubt 
that  while  both  Bryant  and  Cowper  take  sanctuary  in 
nature  from  the  turmoils  of  the  streets,  the  impulse 
to  do  so  was  as  genuine  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
This  genuineness  of  Bryant's  is  shown  in  the  truth  of 
his  natural  descriptions.  Nothing  is  borrowed  from 
books  or  introduced  for  mere  effect ;  he  brings  before 
us  our  country  as  he  had  known  and  loved  it  from  a 
boy.  He  celebrates  the  yellow  violet  and  the  golden- 
rod,  flowers  that  had  never  bloomed  in  English  song. 
While  Cooper  was  making  our  American  landscape 
familiar  through  fiction,  Bryant  was  giving  it,  for  the 
first  time,  a  place  in  poetry.  Through  his  verse  we 
enter  the  dimly  lighted  woods,  with  their  familiar 
lessons  of  renewal  and  decay;  we  see  the  unsullied 
winter  landscape  of  New  England,  the  myriads  of 
ice-crystals  glittering  in  the  sunlight ;  or  we  are  carried 
in  the  wake  of  that  great  Western  emigration  to  where 
the  slopes  of  the  prairies  stretch  in  soft  undulations 
under  the  drifting  shadows  of  the  clouds.  Bryant 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   MIDDLE    STATES  147 

does  more  than  describe  such  scenes:  he  is  fond  of 
drawing  from  them  some  solemn  if  familiar  lesson; 
he  clothes  them  with  his  own  meditative  and  often 
sombre  spirit.  In  this  characteristic  seriousness  he  is 
not  only  close  to  the  English  race-temperament :  he  is 
American  in  so  far  as  he  expresses,  although  without 
theological  bias,  that  section  of  English  Puritanism 
which  made  its  stronghold  in  New  England. 

As  a  poet  Bryant  possesses  great  excellence  within 
a  strictly  limited  range.  He  is  even  more  exclusively 
the  poet  of  nature  than  Wordsworth ;  throughout  his 
poetry  warmth,  human  interest,  and  human  passion 
are  almost  absent.  lie  wrote  but  little  verse,  and  never 
really  surpassed  his  two  early  efforts,  Thanatopsis  and 
the  Ode  to  a  Water-fowl'  yet  though  he  did  not 
advance,  he  maintained  an  exceedingly  high  standard 
until  the  last.  Within  his  own  narrow  limits,  as  a 
meditative  poet,  as  a  descriptive  poet  of  nature,  and  as 
a  master  of  blank  verse,  remarkable  for  its  loftiness, 
nobility,  and  repose,  he  occupies  an  exceptionally  high 
position  among  the  poets  of  America;  and  even  out 
side  of  our  national  limits,  in  that  almost  world-wide 
English  literature  of  which  ours  is  but  a  part,  he  has 
won  a  place  which,  if  minor,  is  both  honorable  and 
secure. 

STUDY  LIST 

BRYANT 

1.  Poems,  "  Thanatopsis,"  "  The  Ages,"  "  To  a  Water 
fowl,"  "  Green  River,"  "  A  Winter  Piece,"  "  The  Death  of 
the  Flowers,"  "The  Yellow  Violet,"  "  The  Prairies,"  "Song 
of  Marion's  Men,1'  "A  Forest  Hymn." 


148     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

2.  Biography  and  Criticism.     Life,  by  Parke  Godwin  ; 

by  D.  J.  Hill,  in  the  American  Authors  Series  ;  by  John 
Bigelow,  in  the  American  Men  of  Letters  Series.  Curtis's 
Literary  and  Social  Essays  ;  Stedman's  Poets  of  America  ; 
"Whipple's  Literature  and  Life,  and  Essays  and  Reviews, 
vol.  i.  ;  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics.  J.  Alden's  Studies  in 
Bryant,  in  the  Literature  Primers  Series,  is  a  useful  little 
book  for  an  analytical  study  of  Bryant's  poetry. 

MINOK  WK1TERS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  STATES 

While  Irving,  Cooper,  and  Bryant  were  the  leaders 
in  the  making  of  our  national  literature,  we  must 
remember  that  the  full  strength  and  importance  of  a 
literary  period  such  as  that  to  which  they  belonged 
cannot  be  measured  by  the  work  of  its  greatest  writers 
alone.  The  natural  desire  of  a  young  nation  to  create 
and  possess  a  literature  which  should  truly  represent  it 
was  a  strong  incentive  to  a  considerable  number  of 
native  writers  who  strove  to  describe  the  American 
landscape  or  depict  the  novel  conditions  of  American 
life.  The  three  great  leaders  whose  work  we  have 
just  studied  were  consequently  only  the  strongest  and 
completest  representatives  of  a  literary  activity  in 
which  many  minor  authors  shared,  and  the  men  by 
whom  they  were  surrounded  worked  under  the  same 
conditions,  and  helped  forward,  each  after  his  own 
fashion,  the  same  general  result.  Having  studied  the 
period  during  which  our  national  literature  took  shape 
in  the  work  of  its  greatest  writers,  we  must  now 
endeavor  to  look  at  it  from  a  more  general  and  com 
prehensive  point  of  view. 


LITERATURE   IN  THE   MIDDLE  STATKS  149 

Let  us  look  at  our  literary  history  as  a  whole,  from 
the  time  of  the  Revolution  to  about  the  middle  of  the 
present  century,  and  ask  ourselves  how  this  important 
epoch  is  related  to  that  long  Colonial  era  of  prepara 
tion  which  preceded  it. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  force  which  raised  up 
and  strengthened  our  oratory,  our  poetry,  and  our 
prose  during  this  first  stage  of  our  national  history, 
was  the  ever-increasing  sense  of  the  dignity  and  mean 
ing  of  our  national  life.  But  this  spirit  of  patriotism 
could  not  eradicate  those  deep-seated  differences 
between  section  and  section,  which  had  been  present 
from  the  first.  While  sharing  in  the  wider  national 
life,  each  section  of  the  country  retained  its  own 
peculiar  character  and  aims.  Local  loyalty  and  local 
jealousy  remained.  We  had  a  political  center  in  our 
national  capitol ;  but  no  city  could  hold  a  similar  rela 
tion  to  our  intellectual  and  literary  life.  In  France 
and  England  the  condition  has  been  widely  different. 
For  the  past  five  or  six  hundred  years  London  has  been 
so  distinctly  the  focus-point  of  English  thought  that 
her  literary  history  is  almost  identical  with  the  national 
life  itself.  In  the  brief  life  of  our  literature,  on  the 
contrary,  the  intellectual  center  has  continually  shifted 
from  one  section  of  the  country  to  another.  When  we  re 
gard  the  rise  of  our  national  literature  from  this  aspect, 
we  are  chiefly  impressed  by  the  small  part  played  in  it 
by  New  England,  the  most  scholarly  and  intellectual 
of  all  the  original  Colonial  groups.  The  period  under 
review  is  clearly  remarkable  for  the  temporary  trans 
ference  of  literary  leadership  from  New  England  to 


150     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN"    LITERATURE 

the  South,  and  from  the  South  to  the  Middle  States. 
When  the  Revolution  and  the  critical  years  that  suc 
ceeded  it  brought  forth  our  great  orators  and  political 
writers,  although  New  England  and  the  Middle  States 
were  neither  silent  nor  uninfluential,  the  real  superi 
ority  lay  with  the  South.  From  the  South  came  two 
of  the  greatest  political  productions  of  that  epoch — 
The  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.*  Xew  England  gave  us 
James  Otis,  Samuel  Adams,  and  Fisher  Ames;  together 
with  the  Middle  States  she  gave  us  Franklin;  but  the 
South  gave  Patrick  Henry,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Madi 
son,  Lee,  and  Monroe.  John  Marshall,  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  during  a  most  critical 
period  of  its  history,  a  man  of  far-reaching  influence 
and  some  literary  gifts,  was,  like  many  of  the  South 
ern  leaders,  a  son  of  Virginia. 

Aside  from  oratory  and  politics,  in  spite  of  the 
early  literary  superiority  of  the  Puritan,  the  founda 
tions  of  our  really  national  literature  were  laid  in  the 
Middle  States.  Poetry  really  found  its  voice,  not  in 
the  pretentious  efforts  of  the  Xew  Englanders,  Barlow, 
Trumbull,  or  D wight,  but  in  the  verse  of  the  Phila- 
delphian  William  Clifton,  or  yet  more  indubitably  in 
a  few  lyrics  of  the  Xew  Jersey  poet  Philip  Freneau. 
In  romance,  through  the  stories  of  Charles  Brockden 
Brown,  the  Middle  States  were  not  only  in  advance 
of  the  rest  of  the  country,  but  were  practically  with 
out  a  rival.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  cen- 

*  The  Federalist,  which  maybe  ranked  as  the  third,  belongs 
in  part  to  the  Middle  and  in  part  to  the  Southern  States. 


LITERATI; UK  IN  THE  MIDDLE  STATES        151 

tury  the  leadership  of  the  middle  region  of  the  coun 
try  became  even  more  marked,  and  in  that  great  sec 
tion  New  York  succeeded  Philadelphia  as  a  literary 
center.  The  view  of  the  Southern  poet  Edgar  Allan 
Poe  on  this  matter  must  be  received  with  caution,  as 
he  was  disposed  to  undervalue  the  literary  group  in  New 
England,  still  it  is  worth  noting  that  he  wrote  as  late 
as  1840 :  "  New  York  literature  may  be  taken  as  a  fair 
representation  of  the  country  at  large.  The  city  itself 
is  the  focus  of  American  letters.  Its  authors  include 
perhaps  one  fourth  of  all  in  America  and  the  influence 
they  exert  on  their  brethren,  if  seemingly  silent,  is 
not  the  less  extensive  and  decisive."  *  If  we  apply 
these  remarks  to  an  earlier  period  than  that  of  which 
Poe  wrote,  they  can  hardly  be  thought  exaggerated. 
From  the  literary  advent  of  Irving  in  1807  to  the 
decisive  entrance  of  Longfellow  and  Emerson  about 
1830,  the  work  of  our  greatest  men  of  letters  was 
centered  in  New  York.  Two  of  our  then  most  famous 
authors,  Irving  and  Cooper,  were  sons  of  the  Middle 
States;  the  third,  Bryant,  chose  New  York  city  as 
the  sphere  of  his  literary  career.  Besides  the  greater 
lights,  there  were  many  others  of  lesser  magnitude. 
To  New  York  belong  the  two  poets  Frrz-GrREENE 
HALLECK  (1790-1807)  and  JOSEPH  RODMAN  DRAKE 
(1795-1820),  united  in  their  friendship  and  their 
work. 

Halleck,   like  Bryant,  was  of  New  England  birth 
and  descent,  but  a  New  Yorker  by  adoption.     Drake 

*  The   Literature  of  New  York.     Poe's  Works,    Stoddard's 
edition,  p.  435. 


152     INTRODUCTIOH  TO  AMERICAK   LITERATURE 

belonged  to  the  great  metropolis  by  birth  as  well  as 
by  residence.  These  two  writers  began 
their  work  in  1819,  the  year  of  the  pub 
lication  of  Cooper's  Precaution,  with  the 
Croaker  Poems,  a  witty  and  satirical  chronicle  of  New 
York  life  which  may  be  compared  to  Irving  and 
Paulding's  Salmagundi.  The  best  verses  of  Halleck, 
although  somewhat  rhetorical  and  declamatory,  have 
an  undoubted  spirit  and  vigor.  They  stand  in  some 
what  the  same  relation  to  poetry  of  a  less  noisy  and 
more  subtle  order  that  a  good  brass  band  bears  to  a 
symphony  orchestra.  He  once  said  to  Drake,  "  It 
would  be  heaven  to  lounge  upon  the  rainbow  and  read 
Tom  Campbell,"  and  his  verses  suggest  the  martial 
music  of  Campbell's  battle-lyrics,  or  the  telling  but 
showy  rhetoric  of  Byron.  His  Marco  Bozzaris  has 
been  declaimed  by  innumerable  schoolboys.  Halleck 
visited  Europe  in  1822,  and  some  of  his  best  poems  are 
due  to  his  foreign  impressions.  Among  them  are  his 
tribute  to  Burns  and  his  Alnwick  Castle,,  the  home  of 
the  great  family  of  Northumberland.  In  the  latter 
there  is  that  intrusion  of  a  satirical  humor  into  the 
very  fortress  of  romance,  that  sudden  half-cynical 
drop  from  poetry  to  prose,  which  is  not  only  char 
acteristic  of  Halleck  but  of  the  American  spirit,  a 
spirit  destined  to  reappear  later  and  in  a  more  aggres 
sive  form  in  the  writings  of  Mark  Twain. 

One  poem  of  Halleck 's  stands  quite  apart  from 
those  we  have  mentioned :  his  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  his  friend  Drake,  which  has  a  simplicity  and  a 
directness  which  speak  of  genuine  sorrow.  The  young 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   MIDDLE   STATES  153 

poet  whose  loss  is  here  commemorated  died  of  con 
sumption  at  twenty-five,  cut  off  in  the  opening  of  a 
career  which  was  full  of  promise.     He  is 
chiefly  remembered  as  Halleck's  friend  and    m°anPDrake 
co-worker,  and  as  the  author  of  a  spirited 
lyric,  The  American  Flag,  and  a  longer  poem,  The 
Culprit  Fay.     The  first  of  these  holds  a  high — per 
haps  the  highest — place  among  our  national  songs. 
The  verse  has  a  stirring  and  martial  music,  and  when 
we  get  beyond  the  somewhat  strained  and  over-elabo 
rate  figure  in  the  opening  stanza,  the  poem  gains  in 
power  as  it  becomes  more  simple  and  direct. 

"Flag  of  the  brave  !  thy  folds  shall  fly, 
The  sign  of  hope  and  triumph  high, 
When  speaks  the  signal-trumpet  tone, 
And  the  long  line  comes  gleaming  on. 
Ere  yet  the  life-blood,  warm  and  wet, 
Has  dimmed  the  glistening  bayonet, 
Each  soldier  eye  shall  brightly  turn 
To  where  thy  sky-born  glories  burn  ; 
And,  as  his  springing  steps  advance, 
Catch  war  and  vengeance  from  the  glance." 

The  Culprit  Fay  is  the  story  of  a  fairy  condemned 
to  do  penance  for  loving  a  mortal.  It  is  slight, 
pretty,  and  fanciful,  perhaps  over-ingenuous.  It 
follows  the  traditions  of  fairy  poetry  and  suggests  the 
famous  description  of  Queen  Mab  in  Shakespeare's 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  or  the  quaint  fancies  of  Drayton's 
Nymphidia.  Here  and  there  are  delicate  and  beauti 
ful  bits  of  natural  description  and  an  occasional  strain 
that,  as  Professor  Beers  has  observed,  recalls  the 
melody  of  Coleridge's  Christ abel. 


154     INTRODUCTION"    TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Another  prominent  member  of  this  New  York  or 
"Knickerbocker"  group  was  NATHANIEL  PARKER 
WILLIS  (1806-1S67),  a  light  but  pleasing  writer  once 

N.  P.         widely  popular.     Like  Bryant,  Willis  early 

Willis.  won  distinction  by  his  verse;  like  Bryant, 
he  left  his  native  New  England  and  became  an  editor 
in  New  York.  Here,  however,  the  resemblance  ends, 
for  Willis,  "  all  natty  and  jaunty  and  gay,"  as  Lowell 
described  him,  was  essentially  a  writer  for  the  day 
and  not  for  posterity.  His  thin,  fluent  verse  has  no 
trace  of  Bryant's  somber  dignity  and  concentrated 
power,  but  some  of  his  shorter  poems  are  still  worthy 
of  a  place  in  our  anthologies.  His  service  to  our 
prose  was  a  more  important  one.  By  his  stories, 
sketches,  and  reminiscences  of  travel,  written  in  an 
easy,  sprightl}7  way,  but  in  the  careful  spirit  of  the 
artist  and  with  a  genuine  feeling  for  style,  he  helped 
to  raise  the  standard  of  workmanship  and  refine  the 
public  taste.  Many  other  New  York  writers  of  the 
time  must  be  passed  over,  or  given  but  the  merest 
mention  here.  Among  these  were  SAMUEL  WOOD- 
WORTH,  a  magazine  editor,  remembered  for  his  single 
poem  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket ;  GEORGE  P.  MORRIS,  a 
New  York  journalist  born  in  Philadelphia,  the  author 
of  several  homely,  simple  lyrics,  as  Woodman,  Spare 
that  Tree;  and  JULIAN  C.  YERPLANCK,  a  lecturer 
and  critic. 

Although  our  literature  thus  had,  for  the  time,  its 
center  in  New  York,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  the 
other  parts  of  the  country  were  entirely  unproductive. 
While  New  England  could  boast  of  no  writers  com- 


LITERATURE   IN   THE    MIDDLE    STATES  155 

parable  to  the  greatest  of  those  in  the  Middle  States, 
we  note  the  signs  of  the  great  literary  awakening  of 
Xew  England  which  was  near  at  hand.  The  North 
American  Review,  destined  to  be  for  years  the  mouth 
piece  of  the  best  thought  and  scholarship  of  the 
country,  was  founded  in  Boston  by  an  ambitious 
group  of  young  men  in  1815.  A  new  spirit,  the  realiza 
tion  of  the  beautiful,  was  softening  the  crude  but 
intense  and  vigorous  intellect  of  the  Puritan.  WASH- 
IX<;TOX  ALLSTOX,  the  painter,  returned  from  Europe, 
filled  with  the  charm  of  the  Old  World,  to  lecture  on 
art.  RICHARD  HKXRY  DAXA  (J.787-1879)  in  his 
ambitious  and  once  well-known  poem  The  Buccaneer, 
and  in  some  unpretentious  verses,  The  Beach  Bird, 
showed  a  true  poetic  instinct.  Such  poets,  with  JAMES 
G.  PERCIVAL  and  CHARLES  SPRAOUE,  were  promises  of 
a  time  when  the  Xew  England  genius  should  really 
free  itself  in  song. 

Xor  was  the  South  wholly  silent  in  this  awakening. 
EDWARD  C.  PIX/KXEY  (Rodolph  and  other  Poems, 
1825)  trilled  his  airy  love-lyrics  like  a  descendant  of 
some  seventeenth-century  cavalier,  or  commemorated 
Indian  maidens  among  the  trees;  while  WILLIAM 
GILMORE  SIMMS  tried  his  'prentice  hand  at  poetry, 
fortunately  to  abandon  it  later  and  become  one  of  the 
most  popular  of  early  Southern  story- writers. 

We  naturally  ask  ourselves  why  it  was  that  Xew 
England,  originally  superior  to  the  sister  Colonies  in 
education,  intellectual  force,  and  literary  production, 
should  have  failed  to  keep  the  lead  during  those 
years  when,  with  the  quickening  of  the  nation's 


156     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

life,  a  higher  and  more  truly  national  literature  was 

taking  form.     Clearly  it  was  not  because 

Causes  of  the  of  any  weakening  of  the  Puritan  mind,  for 

loss  of  New  a  j?ew  years  later,  in  the  days  of  Emerson, 

England 

leadership.     Hawthorne,  and  Longfellow,  New  England 

not  only  re-established  her  superiority,  but 
exhibited  a  new  literary  power  differing  from  and 
surpassing  anything  she  had  shown  herself  capable  of 
hitherto. 

The  causes  of  literary  movements  often  lie  too  deep 
to  be  fully  understood,  but  the  most  obvious  causes  of 
this  shifting  of  the  literary  center  may  be  briefly  sug 
gested.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  why  the  South  should 
have  come  to  the  front  in  an  era  of  oratory  and  po 
litical  discussion,  for  the  conditions  under  which  a 
Southern  gentleman  lived  fitted  him  to  excel  as  a 
political  leader  and  a  man  of  affairs.  The  warmer  and 
more  unrestrained  Southern  temperament  found  a 
natural  expression  in  the  fervor  of  oratory,  and  the 
Southern  proprietors  ruling  over  their  broad  acres,  or 
taking  a  large  share  in  the  conduct  of  the  State,  were 
trained  to  command.  The  same  conditions  which 
made  Virginia  the  mother  of  statesmen  made  her  the 
leader  in  a  time  when  the  best  productions  of  our 
literature  were  political  in  tone.  It  is  equally  clear 
why  the  superiority  of  the  South,  so  marked  in  this 
especial  sphere,  should  not  have  extended  beyond  it, 
for  in  the  general  diffusion  of  education  the  South 
was  still  backward.  In  purely  literary  cultivation  the 
supremacy  lay  neither  with  the  South  nor  with  New 
England,  but  first  with  Philadelphia  and  afterwards 


LITERATUEE   IN   THE   MIDDLE    STATES  157 

with  New  York,  the  two  greatest  cities  of  the  Middle 
States.  The  more  closely  we  look  into  it,  the  more 
we  become  persuaded  of  the  high  cultivation  of  Phila 
delphia  during  the  later  Colonial  times  and  the  early 
period  of  the  Republic,  as  compared  with  the  other 
parts  of  the  country.  This  cultivation  was,  and  still 
is,  so  reserved  and  unobtrusive  that  it  has  been  often 
undervalued  and  overlooked.  For  more  than  a  cen 
tury,  while  it  remained  the  capital  of  Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia  was  the  first  town  in  the  Colonies  in 
commercial,  political,  social,  and  literary  importance. 
Until  1830  it  was  the  first  city  in  population.  From 
1790  to  1800  it  was  the  seat  of  the  national  govern 
ment,  and  at  the  close  of  that  period  it  had"  gathered 
a  more  agreeable  society,  fashionable,  literary,  and 
political,  than  could  be  found  anywhere  except  in  a  few 
capital  cities  of  Europe."*  The  Irish  poet  Torn 
'Moore,  who  visited  Philadelphia  in  1804,  was  taken 
into  the  little  band  of  literary  men  grouped  about 
Joseph  Denuie,  who  edited  a  magazine  called  The 
Portfolio.  Moore  was  so  much  impressed  with  Deiinie 
and  his  friends,  the  "  sacred  few,"  as  he  calls  them, 
that  he  pronounced  Philadelphia  the  only  place  in 
America  "  that  could  boast  of  a  literary  society. "  This 
view  is  no  doubt  hasty  and  extravagant,  but  it  has  in 
it  an  element  of  truth.  Dennie  and  his  co-workers, 
while  not  great  men,  were  the  most  active  and  promis 
ing  group  of  writers  then  in  the  country.  Far  more 
convincing  than  this  foreign  judgment  is  the  record 
of  the  city's  actual  achievement.  Philadelphia  had 
*  Adams's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  119. 


158     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

the  most  famous  men  of  science,  the  best  libraries,  the 
first  and  best  subscription  library  in  the  country.  In 
more  directions  than  can  here  be  mentioned  the  city 
was  the  pioneer.  Our  earliest  drama  was  written  in 
the  "Quaker  City."  The  first  monthly  magazine 
(1741)  and  the  first  daily  newspaper  were  started 
there.  The  Portfolio  (1801-1827)  before  mentioned, 
and  afterwards  Graham' s  Magazine  (1841-1857),  were 
in  their  day  among  our  leading  periodicals.*  More 
than  any  other  of  our  great  cities,  Philadelphia  was 
the  publishing  center  of  the  country,  and  gave  Ameri 
cans  the  earliest  and  best  reprints  of  the  English  and 
Latin  classics.  Even  from  a  very  early  period  of  its 
history  there  are  indications  that  in  Philadelphia,  if 
scholarship  was  less  profound,  there  was  a  wider  ac 
quaintance  with  the  lighter  forms  of  literature,  f  Yet 
although  the  city  could  boast  of  some  creditable 
writers,  it  showed  on  the  whole  a  cultivated  apprecia: 
tion  of  the  works  of  others  rather  than  a  marked 
creative  or  original  power.  It  ceased  to  be  the  national 
capital,  and  its  literary  supremacy  gradually  passed  to 
New  York,  which,  as  the  century  advanced,  surpassed 
it  in  wealth,  population,  and  commercial  importance.  J 

*  On  this  subject  see  The  Philadelphia  Magazines  and  their 
Contributors,  1741-lSoO,  by  Albert  H.  Smyth. 

f  See  what  has  been  said  on  this  subject  on  pages  67-72 
supra.  The  Philadelphia!!  William  Clifton  (1773-1799)  is 
a  good  example  of  the  early  aspirations  towards  poetry  and 
culture. 

|  From  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1825, 
which  connected  New  York  with  Lake  Erie  by  way  of  the 
Hudson  River,  the  growth  of  the  city  was  very  rapid. 


LITERATURE    IX   THE    MIDDLE   STATES  159 

While  these  two  great  cifies  of  the  Middle  region 
thus  successively  led  the  way,  the  Ne\v  England 
genius  was  still  retarded  by  the  narrowness  and  lack 
of  general  cultivation  which  resulted  from  the  strict 
ness  of  its  religion.  Professor  McMaster  tells  us  that 
in  1784  the  Puritanical  taste  of  the  readers  of  Boston 
was  still  strong,  and  that  their  principles  forbade 
them  to  read  many  of  the  greatest  English  writers. 
We  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  the  effect  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  Xew  England  mind  from  these 
narrow  ideas  in  the  rise  of  the  greatest  group  of 
writers  the  country  has  yet  produced. 


CHAPTEE  II 
LITERATURE    IN    NEW   ENGLAND,   1835-1894 

FROM  about  1830-40  New  England  entered  upon 
a  long  period  of  literary  supremacy.  The  intellectual 
awakening  which  preceded  and  accompanied  this  lit 
erary  period  began  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  and 
Boston  rapidly  distanced  New  York  as  a  literary 
center,  as  New  York  had  distanced  Philadelphia. 
Between  1826  and  1840  nearly  all  of  the  great  New 
England  writers  of  this  period  had  definitely  begun 
their  work.  Longfellow  published  his  first  collection 
of  poems  in  1826.  Holmes  began  his  work  in  1827, 
and  Hawthorne  in  1828.  Emerson,  Prescott,  Lowell, 
Whittier,  and  Motley  all  followed  between  1830  and 
1840.  The  expression  of  the  New  England  mind  in 
the  works  of  this  groop  of  writers  constitutes,  as  a 
whole,  our  most  memorable  contribution  to  literature; 
it  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  lasting  achievements 
of  our  American  civilization. 

The  intellectual  leadership  thus  gained  by  New 
England  was  not  in  one  but  in  many  directions;  it 
did  not  consist  merely  in  the  productions  of  a  group 
of  men  of  genius,  but  it  had  back  of  it  the  impetus  of 
a  widespread  popular  movement.  Theology  had  been 
from  the  first  the  dominant  force  in  New  England, 

160 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  161 

and  this  literary  epoch  was  closely  related  to  a  sweep 
ing  reaction,  which  began  in  the  early  years  of  the 
century,  against  the  old  theology.  This  reaction  was 
the  rise  of  Unitarianism.  We  need  not  speak  here  of 
the  purely  religious  or  doctrinal  side  of  this  move 
ment.  Quite  apart  from  this,  it  had  a  most  important 
influence  on  literature.  In  the  early  days  of  New 
England  men  were  compelled  or  expected  to  think  and 
believe  on  all  points  as  the  ministers  bade  them.  The 
Unitarian  movement  brought  with  it  the  assertion  of 
individual  opinions,  and  promoted  the  greatest  free 
dom  of  thought. 

To  measure  the  force  and  significance  of  this  move 
ment  we  must  recall  the  iron  dogmatism,  the  severity, 
and  the  narrowness  from  which  ib  was  a  reaction. 
The  men  of  early  New  England  may  fairly  be  called 
fanatical,  narrow-minded,  and  superstitious;  but  at 
their  worst  they  were  a  strong  race,  limited  and  con 
fined  by  restrictions  of  their  own  making.  They  had 
great  powers,  undeveloped  or  unused,  a  deep  reserve 
of  poetry,  and  a  capacity  for  independent  thought. 
The  Puritan,  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  New  Eng 
land  poets  described  him,  was  a  man  who  fought 
with  a  prayer  on  his  lips:  a  man  of  dry,  "  unwilling 
humor," 

"  With  a  soul  full  of  poetry,  though  it  has  qualms 
In  finding  a  happiness  out  of  the  Psalms  "  ;* 

a  soul  tender  beneath  an  outside  roughness, 

"That  sees  visions,  knows  wrestlings  of  God  with  the  will, 
And  has  its  own  Sinais  and  thunderings  still."* 
*  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 


163     INTRODUCTION"    TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

These  men  had  put  the  largest  part  of  their  intellec 
tual  force  into  damnatory  sermons  or  theological  argu 
ments  ;  they  had  been  cramped  and  unequally  devel 
oped  by  the  lack  of  a  truly  liberal  culture,  their 
gentler  and  aesthetic  side  had  been  repressed  and 
starved.  Yet  the  effort  of  the  Puritan  to  rear  a  group 
of  States  in  a  new  world,  where  men's  thoughts  and 
acts  should  be  made  to  square  with  a  set  standard, 
resulted,  as  might  have  been  expected,  in  "an  intel 
lectual  Declaration  of  Independence."  Restiveness 
under  discipline  and  restraint  grew  even  in  the  days 
of  Wigglesworth  and  Cotton  Mather.  In  the  Unitarian 
movement,  which  took  an  organized  form  about  1815, 
the  New  England  mind,  long  checked,  was  in  open 
revolt,  until,  in  the  teaching  of  Emerson,  we  find  the 
opinion  of  each  individual  held  up  as  superior  to  all 
external  authority  or  guidance.  As  Unitariauism 
directly  tended  to  promote  intellectual  freedom,  its 
relation  to  literature  was  naturally  both  direct  and 
important.  Associated  at  first  with  Harvard  College, 
Unitarian! sin  had  a  distinctly  literary  side,  and  the 
duty  of  a  wider  culture  was  almost  one  of  the  articles 
of  its  creed.  According  to  a  competent  authority,  its 
"  most  remarkable  quality  "  was  "  its  high  social  and 
intellectual  character.  "*  The  earliest  of  its  leading 
preachers,  J.  S.  Buckminster,  in  an  address  before 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  in  1809,  lamented  the 
decline  of  scholarship,  urged  the  importance  of  a 
deeper  and  more  exact  knowledge,  and  declared  that 

:'  Adams's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ix.  p.  183. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  16S 

England  was  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  intellec 
tual  era.*  William  Ellery  Channing  (1780-1842),  the 
greatest  organizer  of  the  movement,  advocated  the 
study  of  foreign  literatures,  and  dwelt  upon  the  need 
of  a  more  generous  culture.  "  Self-culture,"  he  said, 
"  is  religious.  .  .  .  The  connection  between  moral  and 
intellectual  culture  is  often  overlooked."  f 

Xor  was  it  merely  that  Unitarianism  was  the  means 
of  helping  many  in  New  England  to  gain  that  richer 
and  fuller  cultivation,  the  lack  of  which  had  retarded 
its  free  and  harmonious  development.  It  must  be 
further  noted  that  the  doors  were  thus  opened  to 
foreign  literature  and  thought  at  a  time  when  Eng 
lish  literature  was  on  fire  with  new  life  and  inspira 
tion,  when  the  Old  World  was  in  the  ferment  of  fresh 
enthusiasms,  new  philosophies,  and  strange  social 
ideas.  The  idealistic  or  transcendental  philosophy 
had  recently  arisen  in  Germany,  aucTTiad  been  brought 
from  thence  into  England  by  Coleridge.  The  general 
tendency  of  these  transcendental  thinkers,  or  tran 
scendental  ists  as  they  were  called,  was  to  regard 
thought,  or  spirit,  and  not  matter,  as  true  reality. 
One  of  them  spoke  of  all  this  universe  about  us,  which 
seems  so  solid  and  substantial,  as  but  the  thought  of 
God  made  apparent.  They  laid  great  stress  on  man's 
intuitions,  and  on  the  presence  of  God's  spirit  in  man 
andTn~hature!  Theselofty  and  spiritual  conceptions 
were  readily  absorbed  into  New  England  thought,  for 
they  harmonized  with  the  mystical  and  somewhat 

*  Buckminster's  Works.  f  Address  on  Self-culture. 


164     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

visionary  strain  in  the  Puritan  character.  Edward 
Everett,  the  orator,  returned  from  Germany  in  1820, 
and  lectured  on  this  German  thought,  and  it  also 
found  its  way  into  New  England  thought  through  the 
works  of  Coleridge  and  afterwards  of  Thomas  Carlyle. 
In  more  purely  literary  directions  the  foreign  influ 
ences  of  the  time  were  no  less  stimulating.  Since  the 
time  of  Pope  the  whole  spirit  of  English  literature  had 
been  sweetened  and  renewed  by  a  spirit  of  tenderness 
and  charity.  Such  great  poets  as  Burns,  Wordsworth, 
and  Coleridge  had  shown  a  new  power  to  feel,  a  new 
sense  of  the  sacredness  and  beauty  of  nature,  and  of 
the  worth  and  dignity  of  man.  Finally,  the  love  of 
humanity,  and  the  growth  of  a  democratic  feeling, 
were  prompting  aspirations  and  attempt-;  to  introduce 
better  social  systems,  and  in  these  hopes  some  of  the 
advanced  thinkers  in  New  England  afterwards  came 
to  share.  Thus,  released  from  the  weight  of  formalism 
and  asceticism,  and~  at  the  same  time  quickened  and 
uplifted  by  influences  of  a  most  congenial  and  stimu 
lating  character,  the  New  England  mind  ceased  to 
expend  itself  wholly  on  theology,  and  asserted  through 
a  group  of  great  writers  those  literary  powers  which 
had  been  so  long  suppressed. 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  (1803-18821 

Iii  its  great  literary  epoch,  the  reserve  power,  the 
stored-up  energy  and  repressed  sympathies  of  New 
England,  first  found  an  adequate  outlet  in  literature. 
We  can  detect  the  throb  of  the  strenuous  New  England 


RALPH     WALDO     EMERSON 


LITERATURE   IN"   .NEW    EKGLAND  165 

nature  in  its  early  history  and  under  the  stiffness  and 
pedantry  of  its  early  writings,  yet  we  feel  that  the 
Colonial  Puritan  has  in  him  much  that  he  never  really 
puts  into  written  words.  The  barriers  to  progress  and 
to  expression  once  swept  away,  the  inherent  force  in 
this  great  section  of  our  country  enabled  it  in  a  few 
years  to  distance  its  competitors  in  the  Southern  and 
Middle  States.  It  was  not  perhaps  so  much  that  the 
Middle  States  went  backward  in  literary  production, 
although  this  was  to  a  certain  extent  the  case,  as  that 
New  England,  her  restrictions  once  removed,  shot 
suddenly  ahead. 

Geographically,  this  literary  manifestation  of  New 
England  centers  at  Cambridge,  in  that  group  of 
scholars  to  which  Longfellow  and  Holmes  belong,  and 
at  the  quiet  old  neighboring  town  of  Concord,  which 
is  associated  with  Emerson  and  Thoreau.  The  greatest 
individual  force  in  the  movement,  so  far  as  the  influ 
ence  of  any  one  man  is  concerned,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  life,  character,  and  work  of  Emerson.  By  this  we 
do  not  mean  that  Emerson  was  a  greater  writer  than 
any  of  the  men  who  surrounded  him;  his  relative 
merits  as  a  writer  are  a  matter  for  individual  opinion: 
we  mean  that  he  was  the  most  representative  of  the 
whole  movement,  and  that  he  was  the  most  influential 
in  shaping  its  form  and  character.  To  say  best  what 
men  all  around  one  are  laboring  more  or  less  ineffect 
ually  to  define  and  put  into  words,  is  to  become  a 
prophet  in  one's  own  country.  Emerson  did  this,  and 
perhaps  this  personal  power  to  stimulate  and  inspire, 
and  to  make  the  vague  more  tangible  and  effective, 


166     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

was  the  greatest  element  in  his  work.  The  testimony 
of  his  famous  contemporaries,  his  wide  and  enduring 
influence  as  a  lecturer,  the  immense  veneration  which 
he  awakened  in  New  England,  all  bear  witness  to  the 
power  that  went  out  from  him  as  a  man  as  well  as  a 
writer.  Hawthorne  said  that  "  his  mind  acted  upon 
other  minds  of  a  certain  constitution  with  a  wonderful 
magnetism,  and  drew  many  men  upon  long  pilgrim 
ages  to  speak  to  him  face  to  face."*  Lowell,  who 
belonged  to  a  somewhat  later  generation,  recalls  the 
effect  that  Emerson's  thrilling  voice  had  on  him  in 
his  young  manhood.  He  "  brought  us  life,"  Lowell 
declares;  he  was  to  generous  youth  "  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet  that  the  young  soul  longs  for."  f  One  cause 
of  this  power  lay  in  the  fact  that  Emerson  found  the 
right  word  for  ideas  and  enthusiasms  which  the  men 
about  him  were  laboring  to  put  in  tangible  form.  He 
stood  and  spoke  for  the  peculiar  temperament  and  for 
the  intellectual  traditions  of  New  England  as  modified 
and  enlarged  by  the  new  spirit  of  his  age.  Like  the 
best  spirits  of  his  time  and  locality,  he  is  widely  recep 
tive  of  foreign  influences.  He  draws  inspiration  from 
the  poetic  thought  of  Plato,  from  the  German  ideal 
ists,  from  the  mystical  seer  Swedenborg,  from  the 
Eastern  religions,  from  Coleridge  and  the  nature- 
poetry  of  Wordsworth;  yet  with  it  all  he  retains  every 
native  peculiarity,  and  his  words  have  the  unmistak 
able  local  flavor  of  New  England.  He  is  not  a  typical 

*  "  The  Old  Manse"  in  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse 
\  Essay  on  Emerson  the  Lecturer. 


LITERATURE   IN"   NEW   ENGLAND  167 

Americaii,  as  Lincoln  was,  nor  even  as  Lowell  was. 
Spare,  angular,  hard-featured,  with  lean  jaws  and 
thin,  firm  lips,  he  is  distinctly  the  product  of  Xew 
England.  By  inheritance  and  disposition  he  repre 
sents  it  in  its  spirituality,  its  purity,  its  nervous 
energy,  its  intellectual  chill  and  vigor, — in  its  limita 
tions  and  its  strength. 

Ealph  Waldo  Emerson  was  born  in  Boston  in  1803. 
By  actual  inheritance  the  most  distinctive 
intellectual  life  of  New  England  for  gen-  ^e" 
erations  back  was  summed  up  in  him.  He 
was  sprung  from  one  of  those  families  of  ministers  and 
scholars  which  Holmes  has  called  the  "academic" 
families  of  JS'ew  England.  He  could  count  a  minister 
among  his  ancestors  on  both  his  father's  and  his 
mother's  side,  for  eight  generations.  His  father,  the 
pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Boston,  was  a  Unitarian 
and  a  friend  of  Channing.  For  the  first  thirty  years 
of  his  life  Emerson  seemed  as  though  he  were  destined 
to  continue  this  ministerial  succession  with  but  little 
deviation  from  the  family  pattern.  He  went  to  the 
Boston  Latin  School  and  to  Harvard,  where  he  grad 
uated  in  1824.  He  taught  school,  studied  divinity, 
became  a  minister,  and  in  1826  was  called  to  the 
Second  Unitarian  Church  of  Boston  as  associate 
pastor.  In  its  outward  features  this  is  the  biography 
of  hundreds  of  "  academic  "  Xew  Englanders.  But 
the  young  Emerson  had  grown  up  in  a  ferment  of 
strange  doctrines.  His  philosophy  was  carrying  him 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  teachings  of  Clianning  and 
his  associates,  and  even  in  the  Unitarian  pulpit  he  felt 


168     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

himself  constrained.  He  differed  with  his  congrega 
tion  upon  an  important  point  of  doctrine,  and  in  1832, 
after  a  frank  avowal  of  his  views,  he  felt  it  right  to 
resign  his  charge.  It  was  a  courageous  and  manly 
course,  for  it  involved  the  sacrifice  of  a  promising 
career  for  what  Emerson  believed  to  be  the  truth. 

In  1833  Emerson  went  abroad  for  about  a  year, 
meeting  Carlyle,  among  many  other  famous  men,  and 
laying  the  foundations  of  what  proved  a  long  and 
memorable  friendship.  After  his  return  to  this 
country  he  settled  in  183-4  at  Concord,  Massachusetts, 
in  the  old-fashioned  house  that  Hawthorne  has  cele 
brated  under  the  name  of  the  "  Old  Manse."  Emer 
son  was  then  about  thirty ;  nearly  half  a  century  of  life 
was  yet  before  him, — the  quiet,  uneventful  life  of  a 
thinker,  scholar,  and  teacher, — and  during  all  this  long 
period  Concord  remained  his  home.  Few  spots  in  all 
our  country  are  more  hallowed  or  inspiring  than  the 
little  town  that  thus  became  the  center  of  Emerson's 
influence.  There  on  the  banks  of  the  Musketaquid, 
a  tranquil  stream  that  glides  with  almost  imperceptible 
flow  through  the  green  meadows,  the  first  patriot 
blood  was  shed  in  our  war  for  independence.  There, 
in  the  same  room  in  which  Emerson  wrote  his  Xature^ 
Hawthorne  wrote  his  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse. 
There,  too,  on  a  high  ridge  in  the  great  cemetery, 
Hawthorne  is  buried,  while  Emerson  lies  near  him,  a 
mighty  block  of  New  England  granite  for  his  head 
stone,  the  pines  of  New  England  casting  their  brown 
needles  over  his  grave.  Xear  by  is  Walden  Pond,  on 
whose  wooded  shores  Henry  Thoreau,  Emerson's 


LITKKATURK   IN"   NEW   ENGLAND  1G9 

eccentric  disciple,  built  his  hut  in  search  of  simplicity 
and  solitude. 

In  the  winter  after  his  settlement  at  Concord  Emer 
son  began  his  career  as  a  lecturer,  delivering  courses 
in  Boston  and  in  many  towns  throughout  New  Eng 
land,  and  gradually  coming  to  find  in  the  lecture  plat 
form  a  pulpit  from  which  he  could  speak  his  thought 
free  from  all  external  control.  The  year  1830  is 
notable  in  his  history  and  in  that  of  our  literature. 
It  was  in  this  year  that  Emerson  composed  his  Concord 
Hymn,  one  of  the  best  and  most  popular  of  his 
shorter  poems,  in  honor  of  the  farmers  "  embattled  " 
in  the  cause  of  liberty;  in  this  year,  too,  he  published 
his  first  book,  Xature,  which  contains  much  of  the 
essence  of  his  teaching.  There  is  probably  very  little 
strictly  original  thought  in  this  famous  book;  its 
originality  lies  rather  in  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  the 
form  in  which  old  ideas  were  embodied.  There  is 
this  indescribably  quickening  quality  in  most  of  Emer 
son's  work,  so  that  an  old  thought  seems  vitalized  by 
his  touch,  and  acts  on  us  as  a  spiritual  tonic.  The 
book  deals,  in  a  rapt  and  poetic  fashion,  with  the  rela 
tions  of  nature,  or  the  so-called  physical  universe,  to 
the  life  of  man.  From  the  consideration  of  Nature  as 
the  minister  to  man's  temporal  and  bodily  needs  we 
rise  to  a  view  of  Nature  as  the  teacher  and  inspirer  of 
his  spirit.  The  book  is  permeated  with  the  ideal 
philosophy  of  the  Germans,  with  the  nature-poetry  of 
Wordsworth  and  the  nature-teachings  of  Carlyle. 
Emerson,  too,  like  his  great  German  and  English 
predecessors,  sees  in  this  varied  spectacle  of  Nature 


170     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

but  a  manifestation  of  God  to  the  soul.  "  The  world 
is  a  remoter  and  inferior  incarnation  of  God,  a  projec 
tion  of  God  into  the  unconscious.  .  .  .  The  founda 
tions  of  man  are  not  in  matter,  but  in  spirit."  But 
along  with  the  re-announcement  of  such  ideas  we  find 
that  resonant  note  of  self-reliance  and  hopeful  courage 
eminently  characteristic  of  Emerson  himself.  Why, 
he  complains,  should  we  look  backward?  "  The  sun 
shines  to-day  also.  There  is  more  wool  and  flax  in  the 
fields.  There  are  new  lands,  new  men,  new  thoughts. ' ' 
"  Build,  therefore,"  he  concludes,  "  your  own  world. " 
Such  words  are  instinct  with  the  stirring  spirit  of  a 
young  land;  they  make  us  feel  how  habitually  Emer 
son  turned  his  face  towards  the  rising  sun. 

This  same  spirit  of  resolute  self-reliance,  pointing 
us  to  to-day  as  a  new  day,  is  shown  in  Emerson's  next 
important  work,  The  American  Scholar,  an  oration 
delivered  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  in  1837. 
In  it  we  are  taught  that  the  true  scholar,  while  he 
uses  all  the  learning  of  the  past,  must  yet,  before  all, 
see  and  think  for  himself.  Our  day  of  apprenticeship 
to  the  learning  of  other  lands  is  gone  by.  ''  We  will 
walk  on  our  own  feet;  we  will  work  with  our  own 
hands;  wo  will  speak  our  own  minds. "  With  Emer 
son  no  authority  is  sacred  but  the  guidance  of  one's 
own  spirit.  "Every  mind,"  he  writes,  "has  a  new 
compass,  a  new  North,  a  new  direction  of  its  own  "; 
and  in  such  utterances  we  can  measure  the  extent 
of  the  rebound  from  that  iron  dogmatism  of  his  Puri 
tan  forefathers  which  sought  to  conform  every  thought 
and  impulse  to  its  will. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  171 

As  Emerson's  stimulating  powers  became  more  gen 
erally  recognized,  lie  gradually  became  the  center  of  a 
group  of  thinkers  known  as  the  "  transcendentalists. " 
The  so-called  "transcendental  movement"  which 
those  followers  of  the  new  light  inaugurated  may  be 
regarded  as  an  outgrowth  and  extension  of  New  Eng 
land  Unitarianism.  It  was  largely  indebted  to  the 
ideal  philosophy  of  the  recent  German  thinkers,  and 
on  its  humanitarian  side  it  adopted  and  endeavored 
to  put  into  practice  certain  Avild  notions  of  social 
reform.  Severely  practical  as  it  may  seem,  the  high- 
strung  New  England  nature  has  a  strong  tinge  of  the 
visionary,  and  the  transcendentalists  included  some 
long-haired  prophets  who  confused  and  mystified 
themselves  and  their  hearers  with  high-sounding  and 
"  Orphic  utterances."  In  spite  of  frequent  assertions 
to  the  contrary,  Emerson  himself  does  not  always 
escape  the  prevailing  tendency  to  disguise  a  compara 
tively  familiar  thought  in  mystical  and  oracular 
phrases.  Charles  Dickens  declared  that  he  was  given 
to  understand  when  in  Boston  "  that  whatever  was 
unintelligible  would  certainly  be  transcendental." 
Lowell  has  pricked  some  of  the  inflated  extravagances 
of  the  time  with  the  keen  point  of  his  humor.  "  Not 
a  few  impecunious  zealots  abjured  the  use  of  money 
(unless  earned  by  other  people),  professing  to  live  on 
the  internal  revenues  of  the  spirit.  Communities 
were  established  everyAvhere,  where  everything  was  to 
be  common  but  common  sense."  f 

*  American  Notes.  f  Essay  on  Thoreau. 


172      INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Two  direct  results  of  this  "  transcendental  move 
ment  "  were  the  establishment  of  The  Dial  (18-40),  a 

magazine  for  the  promulgation  of  the  new 

doctrines,  and  the  founding  of  Brook  Farm, 
an  agricultural  and  industrial  community  intended  to 
exemplify  the  ideal  state  of  society.  Immense  hopes 
and  unselfish  efforts  were  centered  in  The  Dial. 
Emerson  was  a  frequent  contributor,  and  for  a  time 
its  editor,  some  of  his  best-known  prose  and  verse 
appearing  first  in  its  pages.  It  gathered  the  leading 
transcendentalists  about  it:  George  Ripley,  a  scholarly 
Unitarian  minister,  afterwards  the  head  of  Brook 
Farm;  Margaret  Fuller,  its  first  editor,  and  a  woman 
of  wide  acquirements,  who  was  called  the  "  priestess 
of  transcendentalism";  A.  Brouson  Alcott,  mystic 
and  vegetarian,  who  chopped  wood  and  contributed 
"  Orphic  sayings,"  which  were  at  least  sufficiently 
unintelligible  for  the  most  transcendental  taste.  With 
these  were  many  more  equally  distinguished,  so  that 
The  Dial  shows  us  this  remarkable  movement  in  all 
its  fervor.  Oarlyle  thought  that  the  writers  for  The 
Dial  seemed  in  danger  of  "  dividing  themselves  from 
the  fact  of  this  present  universe."  Vulgar  fact, 
however,  overtook  them,  and  after  about  four  years 
money  difficulties  brought  the  enterprise  to  an  end. 

Transcendentalism  Jiad  a  humanitarian  as  well  as 
a   philosophic    and    religious    side,    and    it   Avas  this 

humanitarian  zeal  to  better  the  world  that 
Farm.  t00^  shape  in  Brook  Farm.  We  need  not 

consider  here  whether  this  desire  to  re 
organize  society  sprang  up  spontaneously  in  New  Eng- 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  173 

land,  or  whether,  like  the  transcendental  philosophy, 
it  was  partly  the  result  of  foreign  influences.  In 
either  case,  it  was  in  accord  with  certain  aspirations 
and  theories  of  the  time.  Nearly  half  a  century 
earlier  Coleridge  and  Southey  had  planned  to  found 
an  ideal  community  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna, 
and  since  that  time  thinkers  both  in  England  and  in 
l-Yaiice  hail  preached  this  iloct  rim:  of  social  reconstruc 
tion,  or,  as  in  some  cases,  striven  to  put  it  into  prac 
tice.  Consciously  or  unconsciously,  Brook  Farm 
embodied  the  essence  of  these  foreign  ideas.  The 
Association  secured  about  two  hundred  acres  of  land 
at  West  Roxbury,  some  nine  miles  from  Boston,  and 
started  there  a  community  which  should  combine  the 
teaching  and  study  of  literature  and  science  with 
agriculture  and  other  industries.  The  enterprise  was 
carried  on  in  the  face  of  increasing  practical  difficul 
ties  for  about  five  years.  Emerson  was  not  a  member 
of  the  community,  although  interested  in  its  pro 
gress. 

This  much  has  been  said  about  Xew  England  tran 
scendentalism  and  some  of  its  manifestations,  because 
Emerson  is  its  best  exponent  and  its  chief  representa 
tive.  We  must,  however,  leave  these  more  general 
subjects  and  return  to  Emerson  himself.  The  re 
mainder  of  his  tranquil  life,  greatly  influential  as  it 
was,  requires  but  little  comment.  From  time  to  time 
he  added  to  his  published  works  a  volume  of  essays  or 
a  book  of  poems.  He  made  a  second  trip  to  Europe 
in  1847,  and  summed  up  his  impressions  of  England 
in  his  English  Traits.  He  continued  to  write  and  to 


-1    TXTSODUCHOST  10  AMEEICAX  LITERATURE 


•":-•     ••      -  •      :.:..:-    :'.-:.-.     .  '  ;-:     :'...-'..:-.. 

;:         --.-•' 

"We  hare  spleen  of  Emerson's  subtle  and  wide 

spread  infliienee,  and  hare  referred  it  partly  to  the 

fact  that  lie   fitly  represented    the   Xew 

I~.'£'  England  mind  during  a  certain  important 

phase  of  its  thought,  and  partly  to  the 

_•;..-•.•     •-",-.    2     :  ..  -        :-:     ;.  ".-::..--:'....:      :-;:. 

tiae  ''*  mtaQeetaal  gleam  diffused  about  Ms  presence 

lite  the  garment  of  a  shining  one." 

But  the  great  irriter  or  thinker  vorks  not  merely 
for  nis  ovn  generation  but  for  sneoeeding  generations. 
He  n^re^nts  not  merely  a  set  of  men,  or  a  single 
esmmimity,  but  something  common  to  man.  To 
mdi  a  really  just  estimate  of  Emerson  as  a  writer,  it 
woold  lie  iMMiiHiij  to  put  aside,  for  the  time,  this  per- 
:  •  .-  ._.  ,  _  '  -  .-.  :-:  -  :-  '  -  .--.--.  .  -  .  •  - 
•of  his  Trork,  and  judge  of  his  writings  as  a  thing  apart 
and  distinct.  We  are  forced  to  determine  how  far  he 
•cprrdfd  mconun-nnicating  to  his  written  works  that 
quickening  power  which  he  himself  exerted  ;  how  far 
his  poetry  and  his  prose  are  likely  to  snrriTe  that 
ware  of  tnnaeendenial  enthusiasm  which  produced 
tiaan-  This  separation  of  the  permanent  influence  of 
EanessoB";  writings  from  the  personal  influence  of 
Eaneraoja  himself  time  only  can  really  accomplish; 
.....  -:.•-.-.-;  -  -  -  :•  '  >T  ':.''::  'j  :,:'.  _•  ,  -: 

---:.:_•-.-..:    -:-:-.:"-.    '  ..    ---..•:•     ;     ..-       ..     -. 


Mtmen  from,   ait.    Old    Mantst  :    "The    Old 


:_••-  :•  i  -   z/  -:  ,  1  ." 


Without  entering 

ajr^r.-g  Entgiisls  wrnteTS.  TT*  "Caua  ibere  -M..T  ?r**i.  brie-ZT 
of  niae  general  e!n^jniiiei«'r  -o»f  M«  w*r*rt.  He  sfieftis  TO 
IE=  as  T»>&I  aEd  a^  esajisr:  feat  iaa  tiiiser  <cat=iE  hs  '•"^ark 
lias  mmcli  tls*-  saauj 

fee  is 


>.  we 

eiceOeiace.  tbai  abaeacie  -of  i£te  poTer 
t  a  wc»rk  wMcla  ali<M2JlHi  t*  snail  HOT  in 
e5-  but  as  a  Triws^e,  wMei  is  admittedly 

1215    J31M5T    SrH<C*inL5    d-fif-PCtS.       El!Q-e?5C*n*?   T-f-TSr   ^^   Tin- 

doabfelly   an    ijodliidEAJiiT  asad    disiii>eT>>n    rareuT 
found  in  osr  pj-ers.     IT  nas  j&dmiiabJe  cnaZiTits.  bni 

IT  is  TO  be  fewi, 

irk»i2s  c>f  Em-erscim  Mmstlf.  It  is  liae 
orftati<o]Q  of  the  brain  raiier  Tihar.  tb*1  uTT-eTsz-ese  of  tJ^e 
bean  ;  in  fa^>  in  a  ^nanc.  living.  g«aei>Mi5  iinroaniTr; 
at«ore  all.  the  lines  do  noi  Sow  a®d  sinz  Tir^msifclTes. 
as  thos*  of  a  crae  pwt  do,  buT  the  music  seaos  ba3f- 
fr»ien  in  tlse  snslmnjeEi.  'W'h-rn  Emse-Tson  irsts  a  bov 
as  sngiQff-schoQL,  a  sin^ile  exiiife-iiraoffi  of  iiis  Tc«cal 
f*>«~ers  indneed  tie  Trdfa-r-Lter  TO  t«tll  bim  tfeti  he  need 
no:  return.  He  lacked  ibi-  n;i  s:-caJ  facailTr,  and  ve 
can  haidlr  ne»d  one  of  Ms  lonsier  pecans  to  tie  ej&d 
withoni  bem?  iTTttast'ti  br  soroe  nirsii  or  ^Tnrcmr  line. 
Emerson.  3n  Ms  r^iK*!*.  :f  as.  in-co3ase"3ae5iT»  is  an 


176      INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

immensely  stimulating  writer.  His  mind  seems  to 
have  the  edge  and  glitter  of  highly-tempered  steel. 
His  short,  terse,  epigrammatic  sentences  pierce  us  like 
so  many  separate  sword-thrusts.  The  intense,  nervous 
vitality  of  the  New  Englauder  snaps  and  sparkles  in 
his  abrupt  and  oracular  utterance.  Brilliant,  with  a 
tiring,  unrelieved  brilliancy,  his  light,  like  that  of  the 
electric  spark,  may  prick  bat  cannot  warm.  He 
writes  with  a  conscientious  minuteness  of  homely 
things,  "  the  meal  in  the  firkin ;  the  milk  in  the  pan"  ;* 
nevertheless,  his  sympathy  with  the  every-day  problems 
and  experiences  of  men  and  women  is  theoretical  rather 
than  real  and  spontaneous.  In  reality  he  has  that 
abstraction  and  equable  serenity  possible  for  those  who 
survey  life  from  the  mountain-peaks  of  philosophy. 
He  has  an  invincible  hopefulness;  but  we  miss  in 
him  that  bond  of  tenderness,  that  sense  of  comrade 
ship  that  we  have  with  the  great  souls  who  have  bled 
and  stumbled  on  the  common  highway.  He  re 
mains  coldly  intellectual;  absolutely  unimpassioned, 
as  though  man  were  but  a  superior  thinking-machine, 
the  tension  of  his  thought  renders  his  work  singularly 
lacking  in  the  quality  of  repose.  These  and  other 
limitations  are  evident  in  his  prose ;  and  while  his  work 
abounds  in  wise  maxims,  and  in  memorable  and  noble 
passages,  we  may  agree  with  Matthew  Arnold  in  re 
fusing  to  place  him  with  the  greatest  masters  of  style. 
Yet  Emerson  stands  squarely  among  the  great  men 
of  our  century.  His  voice  reaches  us  from  the 

*  The  American  Scholar.     Compare  the  whole  passage. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  177 

heights,  unworldly,  clear,  and  pure.  It  is  a  great 
thing  that  our  rich  and  commercial  America,  in  the 
abundance  of  its  material  successes,  should  have 
brought  forth  a  teacher  of  such  unsullied  life  and  lofty 
purposes,  who  bore  unswerving  witness  to  the  worth 
of  the  things  which  are  not  seen.  This  was  his  work 
and  mission,  a  great  and  beautiful  one,  to  quicken  our 
spirit,  to  increase  our  hold  on  the  spiritual  and 
eternal.  We  may  well  be  proud  when  we  read  what 
a  French  writer  has  written  of  him:  "  In  this  North 
America,  which  is  pictured  to  us  as  so  materialistic,  I 
find  the  most  ideal  writer  of  our  times." 


STUDY  LIST 
EMERSON 

1.  Essays.    "Nature"  and  "The  American  Scholar,"  in 
Nature;  Addresses  and  Lectures ;  "Uses  of  Great  Men," 
and  "  Sliakspeare  ;  or,  The  Poet,"  in  Representative  Men  ; 
"Self-reliance,"  "Friendship,"  "History,"  in  Essays,  1st 
series  ;  "  Character,"  in  Essays,  3d  series.   English  Traits 
may  also  be  read,  both  for  the  fairness  of  its  criticism  and 
the  glimpse  it  gives  us  of  Emerson's  personality. 

2.  Poems.     "Concord  Hymn,"  "  Walden,"  "Threnody," 
"The  Snow-storm,"  "The  Rhodora,"  The  Humble  Bee," 
"Boston   Hymn,"   "Voluntaries,"  "The  Past,"  "Wood- 
notes,"  "Forbearance." 

3.  Biography    and   Criticism.    Life   by    James    Elliot 
Cabot ;  by  Dr.  Holmes,  in  American  Men  of  Letters  Series  ; 
by  Dr.  Richard  Garnett,  in  Great  Writers  Series  ;  by  Prof. 
Herman  Grimm,  in  Makers  of  America  Series.     Whipple's 
Recollections  of  Eminent  Men  ;  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social 
Essays.     For  criticism,  see  Lowell's  essay,  "Emerson,  the 


178     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Lecturer,"  in  Hy  Study  Windows;  Stedman's  Poets  of 
America ;  Henry  James's  Partial  Portraits ;  Augustine 
Birrell's  Obiter  Dicta,  2d  series  ;  Morley's  Critical  Miscel 
lanies,  vol.  i. ;  "Whipple's  American  Literature. 

4.  For  an  account  of  ' '  Brook  Farm  "  see  Frothingham's 
Life  of  George,  Ripley,  in  American  Men  of  Letters  Series  ; 
also,  Higginson's  Life  of  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli,  in  the 
same  series. 


HENRY  W,  LONGFELLOW    (1807-1882) 

We  have  said  that  Emerson  widened  the  narrow 
boundaries  of  New  England  thought,  enlarging  the 
channels  for  the  freer  flow  of  European  ideas,  but  the 
Puritan  nature  required  something  in  addition  to  this 
emancipation  of  the  intellect  for  its  full  development. 
It  needed  beauty,  sentiment,  warmth,  and  the  grace 
of  romantic  associations.  The  general  tone  of  life 
throughout  the  New  England  States  had  been  upright 
and  hard-working,  but  severely  practical,  colorless, 
and  plain.  There  was  little  within  the  blank  walls  of 
the  whitewashed  meeting-house  to  touch  the  sense  of 
beauty, — little  within  the  scope  even  of  the  more 
cultivated  on  which  the  imagination  could  live.  The 
English  Puritan  had  desecrated  cathedrals,  he  had  let 
in  the  white  daylight  through  windows  which  had 
once  been  radiant  with  the  pictured  stories  of  saints 
and  martyrs;  the  American  Puritan  had  alienated 
himself  from  the  grace,  joyousness,  and  inspiration  of 
much  of  the  world's  best  poetry,  living  his  meager 
existence,  indifferent  or  antagonistic  to  a  world  of 
beauty  and  power  to  him  almost  unknown.  These 


HENRY     WADSWORTH      LONGFELLOW 


LITERATURE   IX    NEW    ENGLAND  179 

sterling,  hard-featured  men  needed  to  grow  in  this 
power  to  feel ;  they  needed  to  have  this  daily  life — 
too  often  crude,  petty,  and  rigid — expanded  and 
softened  by  that  nameless  charm  of  poetry,  legend, 
and  art  which  with  the  consecration  of  a  long  past 
and  a  thousand  beautiful  associations  make  up  the 
magic  of  the  Old  World.  This  need  of  the  refining 
and  cultivating  grace  of  Europe  was  not  indeed 
peculiar  to  New  England ;  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
it  was  a  need  of  the  country  at  large.  It  is  true  that 
in  prose  Irving  had  communicated  to  his  countrymen 
some  of  this  fascinating  flavor  of  the  older  civiliza 
tions,  but  in  poetry  it  first  began  to  diffuse  itself 
through  the  verse  of  Longfellow,  steeped  in  the  fra 
grance  of  a  romantic  past.  Longfellow  was,  indeed, 
the  poet  of  many  national  themes — of  Indian  life  and 
legend,  of  the  early  Puritan  settler,  of  the  parted 
Acadian  lovers;  nevertheless,  his  absorption  of  Euro 
pean  influences,  and  his  power  to  infuse  this  foreign 
leaven  into  our  American  life,  remains  his  especial 
work  and  mission.  Few  lives  are  more  stainless, 
untroubled,  and  complete  than  that  of  this  sweet- 
natured  and  placid  master  of  tranquil  song.  It  moves 
with  an  even  flow,  like  the  poet's  own  singing,  clear, 
melodious,  and  pure;  the  life  of  a  quiet,  gentle 
scholar,  of  high  aims  steadfastly  pursued  and  worthily 
accomplished;  deepened  and  disciplined  by  the  in 
evitable  sorrows,  but  without  fret,  or  hindrance,  or 
stain.  There  have  been  many  greater  poets  than 
Longfellow,  but  few  who  followed  so  faithfully  Mil 
ton's  precept  that  the  poet's  life  should  first  be  a  true 


180     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

poem;  few  whose  lives  were  a  more  perfect  prepara 
tion  for  the  full  use  of  their  best  gifts.  This  beauti 
ful  adjustment  between  Longfellow's  life  and  work  is, 
perhaps,  the  thought  that  impresses  us  most  deeply  in 
studying  the  story  of  the  man  himself. 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow  was  born  in  1807,  in 
Portland,  Maine;  a  beautiful  town  with  elm-shadowed 
streets  and  a  wide  outlook  over  the  sea. 
Like  Emerson  and  Bryant  he  sprang  from  j0^-|  ^ife 
the  old  New  England  stock.  William 
Longfellow,  the  founder  of  the  family  in  New  Eng 
land,  settled  in  America  in  1076.  On  his  mother's 
side  the  poet  could  boast  an  even  longer  descent  from 
that  John  Alden  and  Priscilla  whose  story  is  told  in 
The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish.  Longfellow's 
father  was  a  lawyer  of  cultivation  and  high  standing; 
he  was  a  friend  and  former  classmate  of  Channing's, 
and  in  sympathy  with  his  religious  views;  his  mother 
was  a  lover  of  poetry  with  a  sensitive  and  imaginative 
nature.  With  such  parents,  and  with  exceptionally 
beautiful  surroundings,  all  the  conditions  of  Long 
fellow's  boyhood  were  favorable  to  a  full  and  natural 
development.  He  had  ready  access  to  books,  and 
turned  to  them  with  eagerness,  but  at  other  times  he 
loved  to  look  across  the  gleaming  bay  to  the  islands 
that  were  the  Hesperides  of  his  "  boyish  dreams,"  or 
to  wander  in  the  woods,  thinking  those  "  long,  long 
thoughts"  of  youth  that  tell  of  the  stirring  of  the 
soul.  Even  as  a  boy  the  unknown  beyond  the  water 
had  charms  for  him ;  and  he  warmed  at  the 


LITERATURE    IN   NEW   ENGLAND  181 

"  Spanish  sailors  with  bearded  lips, 
And  the  beauty  and  mystery  of  the  ships, 
And  the  magic  of  the  sea."  * 

Longfellow  came  of  an  active  and  soldierly  race,  but 
all  his  tastes  and  aspirations  were  bookish,  and  from 
the  first  he  was  a  typical  man  of  letters.  As  a  trem 
bling  and  expectant  boy  of  thirteen  he  had  found  his 
way  to  the  poet's  corner  of  the  Portland  Gazette.  In 
1823  he  Avent  to  Bowdoin  College,  entering  the  same 
class  with  Hawthorne.  Here  he  studied  hard  and 
continued  to  write  verses,  while  his  ambitions  grad 
ually  fixed  themselves  definitely  on  a  literary  career. 
':  The  fact  is,"  he  writes  to  his  father  in  1824,  "  I 
most  eagerly  aspire  after  future  eminence  in  litera 
ture;  my  whole  soul  burns  most  ardently  for  it,  and 
my  earthly  thought  centers  in  it.  "f  In  those  days 
it  was  even  more  hazardous  than  at  present  to  trust 
to  literature  for  support,  and  Longfellow's  father  was 
naturally  impressed  with  the  practical  obstacles  to  his 
son's  choice.  A  fortunate  circumstance,  however, 
unexpectedly  opened  the  way.  It  had  been  decided 
to  establish  a  professorship  of  modern  languages  at 
Bowdoin  College,  and  Longfellow,  who  had  impressed 
the  trustees  by  his  high  character  and  ability,  was 
offered  the  position  with  the  understanding  that  he 
should  first  study  in  Europe  to  prepare  himself  for  his 
duties.  In  that  day  the  world  for  an  American  youth 
was  commonly  narrowed  down  to  his  own  immediate 

*  See  his  poeui  My  Lost  Youth. 

\  Life  of  Longfellow,  edited  by  Samuel  Longfellow,  vol.  i. 
p.  53. 


182     INTRODUCTION"   TO    AMERICAN"    LITERATURE 

surroundings;  it  was  an  unusual  as  well  as  fortunate 
chance  which  thus  enabled  the  young  poet  of  nine 
teen,  impressionable,  eager,  and  receptive,  to  come  so 
early  under  the  spell  of  the  Old  World  which  was  to 
color  so  much  of  his  future  thought  and  work.  We 
can  conjecture  the  vividness  of  these  foreign  impres 
sions  from  Outre- Jler,  the  book  in  which  he  recorded 
his  wanderings;  we  can  learn  from  it,  too,  the  ardent 
spirit  in  which  he  approached  the  Old  World.  He 
tells  us  that  it  was  to  his  imagination  "  A  kind  of  holy 
land,  lying  afar  off  beyond  the  blue  horizon  of  the 
ocean;  and  when  its  shores  first  rose  upon  my  sight, 
my  heart  swelled  with  the  deep  emotions  of  the  pil 
grim  when  he  sees  afar  the  spire  of  his  devotion."  * 
Longfellow  left  home  in  1820,  and  remained  abroad 
about  three  years.  By  the  end  of  that  time  he  had 
made  himself  proficient  in  French,  Spanish,  Italian, 
and  German;  he  had  widened  his  horizon  by  foreign 
scenes  and  experiences,  and  gained  the  means  of 
access  to  the  great  literatures  of  the  modern  world. 
In  1829  Longfellow  settled  down  to  his  duties  at 
Bowdoin  College,  working  with  his  accustomed 
steadiness,  and  winning  popularity  as  a  teacher  by  the 
peculiar  charm  and  gentleness  of  his  disposition.  In 
1831  he  married  Miss  Mary  Storer  Potter,  whose  death 
in  1835  was  his  first  great  sorrow.  We  come  near  to 
this  great  grief  through  some  lines  in  Longfellow's 
poem  The  Footsteps  of  Angels,  in  which  he  speaks  of 
his  wife  as 

*  Outre-Mer.     The  Pile-rim  of  Outre-Mer. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  183 

"  the  being  beauteous 
Who  unto  my  youth  was  given, 
More  than  all  things  else  to  love  me, 
And  is  now  a  saint  in  heaven." 

Shortly  before  this,  in  1834,  Longfellow  had  been 
appointed  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  at  Harvard. 
To  further  prepare  himself  for  his  new  duties,  he 
again  visited  Europe,  spending  some  time  in  the  north, 
and  studying  Swedish  and  other  northern  languages. 
In  1836  he  established  himself  at  Cambridge,  and 
entered  upon  his  new  duties  in  the  year  following. 
This  old  town,  during  those  years  the  center  of  much 
of  our  best  culture,  was  hereafter  to  be  his  home. 

The  years  that  followed  Longfellow's  return  from 
his  first  European  tour  had  been  also  years  of  literary 
activity,  but  it  was  almost  wholly  in  the 
direction  of  prose.  His  work  during  this 
period  is  obviously  an  outcome  of  his 
studies  and  his  foreign  experience.  Thus  we  have 
Outre-Mer  (1835)  witli  its  reminiscences  of  France, 
Spain,  and  Italy,  and  the  prose  romance  of  Ihj2)erion 
(1839),  the  story  of  the  Continental  wanderings  of  a 
very  youthful  sentimentalist,  Paul  Flemming.  The 
book  last  named,  the  scene  of  which  is  laid  chiefly 
in  Germany,  is  filled  with  the  spirit  of  mediaeval 
romance,  moonlight,  castles,  and  impassioned  moods 
and  a  generally  fervid  and  ecstatic  one  which  comes 
near,  at  least,  to  sentimentality.  This  is  the  atmos 
phere  we  encounter  in  certain  romantic  German 
writers,  and  the  book  suggests  to  us  how  largely  Long 
fellow  was  affected,  not  only  here  but  elsewhere,  by  the 


184     INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

German  spirit.  During  these  years  of  prose  writing 
Longfellow  contributed  scholarly  papers  and  a  few 
short  poems  to  the  magazines,  but  his  only  considera 
ble  work  in  poetry  was  a  translation  from  the  Spanish 
of  Coplas  de  Manrique. 

Up  to  1839  Longfellow's  reputation  as  an  original 
poet  had  rested  chiefly  on  verses  scattered  through  the 
newspapers  and  magazines,  but  that  year,  which  had 
been  marked  by  the  appearance  of  Hyperion,  is  also 
notable  for  the  publication  of  his  volume  of  collected 
poems  The  Voices  of  the  Night.  The  book  is  a 
memorable  one  in  the  history  of  our  literature.  It 
had  a  wide  and  immediate  popularity;  some  of  the 
poems,  like  The  Psalm  of  Life  and  Excelsior,  sinking 
deep  into  the  people's  life.  From  this  time  it  is  to 
poetry  that  Longfellow's  efforts  are  almost  exclusively 
directed,  and  by  volume  after  volume  he  steadily 
won  for  himself  a  more  and  more  assured  place.  In 
1843  he  married  Miss  Frances  Appleton,  and  until 
her  tragic  death  in  1861  his  life  was  full  of  high 
serenity  and  great  achievement.  After  this  second 
sorrow  he  still  continued  his  scholar's  life  of  study 
and  literary  labor,  but  with  an  increasing  sense  of 
loneliness  he  came  to  patiently  look  forward  to  the 
end.  This  peaceful  and  expectant  spirit  shines  out  in 
his  last  volumes,  Ultima  Thule  (1880)  and  In  the 
Harbor  (1882) ;  it  is  the  note  of  a  beautiful  old  age. 
Long  ago  had  he  looked  "  o'er  sunlit  seas"  toward 
the  shining  Hesperides,  his  "  land  of  dreams  ';  now 
in  sight  of  the  tempestuous  islands  of  the  North,  he 
sings : 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  185 

"  Ultima  Thule  !  utmost  isle  ; 
Here  in  thy  harbors  for  awhile 
We  lower  our  sails  ;  awhile  we  rest 
From  the  unending,  endless  quest." 

lie  died  tranquilly  at  Cambridge,   011  the  loth   of 
March,  1882. 

"We  have  said  that  as  Emerson  uttered  foreign 
thought  with  the  unmistakable  twang  of  Yankee 
speech,  adding  to  it  a  certain  accent  and 
independence  of  his  own,  so  Longfellow  fellow's 
was  before  all  else  the  medium  through  work- 
which  we  received  the  grace  and  beauty  which  had 
grown  up  so  slowly  in  an  older  world.  It  requires  no 
extended  study  to  show  us  the  truth  of  this  in  Long 
fellow's  case.  As  a  translator  he  domesticates  chosen 
poems  and  fragments  from  many  literatures  among  us. 
lie  brings  us,  in  his  faithful  and  musical  renderings, 
which  in  themselves  are  distinct  contributions  to  lit 
erature,  treasures  from  the  poets  of  Germany,  France, 
Sweden,  Spain,  Italy,  and  ancient  Rome.  In  magni 
tude  his  translation  of  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante  is 
of  course  his  most  important  work  as  a  translator,  but 
we  are  further  impressed  by  the  breadth  of  his  range 
and  sympathies.  But  he  not  only  brought  Europe  to 
us  as  a  translator,  we  must  note  further  the  large  pro 
portion  of  his  original  poems  which  deal  with,  or  are 
suggested  by,  foreign  themes.  The  Tales  of  a  Way 
side  Inn  is  a  collection  of  stories  supposed  to  be  told 
by  a  group  of  friends  about  the  hearthstone  of  the  old 
Red  Horse  Inn  at  Sudbury,  Mass.  Out  of  the 
twenty-one  stories  that  compose  the  poem,  only  four 


186     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

deal  directly  with  American  themes.  The  rest  relate 
to  many  lands,  and  often  take  us  back  to  a  distant 
past.  Among  the  shorter  poems  The  Belfry  of 
Bruges  and  Nuremburg  are  good  examples  of  this 
foreign  flavor.  Nor  is  this  all.  Even  in  the  poems 
which  treat  of  national  subjects  we  can  often  detect 
the  power  of  these  foreign  influences  on  the  poet  him 
self.  A  passage  in  a  French  poet  suggests  the  refrain 
in  The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,  while  that  in  My  Lost 
Youth  is  the  haunting  "  echo  of  a  Lapland  song." 
The  metre  of  Hiaivatha,  perhaps  his  most  distinctly 
American  poem,  is  borrowed  from  the  Kalevala,  a 
national  epic  of  Finland.  It  is  also  to  be  observed 
that  this  cosmopolitan  flavor  in  Longfellow  is  more 
than  a  mere  fondness  for  other  lands  or  other  litera 
tures  ;  it  is  in  accordance  with  his  deliberate  conviction 
in  regard  to  the  true  scope  of  a  national  American 
literature.  In  Kavanagh  be  ridicules  and  refutes  the 
theory,  so  rife  in  the  days  of  Barlow  and  D wight, 
that  in  order  to  be  national  our  literature  must  be 
a  local  production,  shut  in  to  American  themes. 
Originality  is  not  to  be  gained  by  remaining  ignorant 
of  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  done  in  the 
world.  On  the  contrary  he  says,  "  Let  us  throw  all 
the  windows  open;  let  us  admit  light  and  air  on  all 
sides."*  And  in  the  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn  he 
recurs  to  the  same  prevalent  notion  of  nationality  in 
literature  to  combat  it  again. 

*  Kavanagh,  chap,  xx,  p.  115.     See  the  allusion  to  Hamlin 
Garland's  presentation  of  an  opposite  view  on  p.  325. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  187 

"  Poets — the  best  of  them — are  birds 
Of  passage  ;  where  their  instinct  leads 
They  range  abroad  for  thoughts  and  words, 
And  from  all  climes  bring  home  the  seeds 
That  germinate  in  flowers  or  weeds."* 

But  while  Longfellow  was  himself  a  "bird  of 
passage,"  laden  with  precious  seeds  from  many  climes, 
he  is,  though  not  our  most  distinctively  American, 
from  one  aspect  our  most  representative  poet.  Other 
American  poets  are  more  vigorous,  more  passionate, 
more  patriotic  than  Longfellow,  but  none  has  appealed 
so  widely  to  the  great  mass  of  our  people,  or  won  so 
universal  a  welcome  in  England.  It  is  not  a  light 
tiling  to  write  songs  that  go  straight  to  the  heart  of 
millions,  and  yet  never  stoop  to  win  favor  by  a  single 
suggestion  of  anything  that  is  vulgar,  or  trivial,  or 
base.  Scholar  as  he  was,  Longfellow  was  before  all 
the  people's  poet.  He  is  the  laureate  of  the  simpler 
emotions,  the  wholesome  domestic  affections:  pure, 
melodious,  absolutely  easy  of  comprehension,  his  com 
paratively  restricted  range  of  thought  and  mood  keep 
him  in  accord  with  the  sympathies  of  a  large  number 
of  readers.  AVith  none  of  the  Puritan  vigor,  he  has 
the  strong  Puritan  conscience,  and  he  is  essentially  the 
preacher  of  homely  morals,  a  counsellor  and  helper 
such  as  the  people  love.  Thus,  in  actual  fact,  Long 
fellow,  in  the  years  of  his  greatest  influence,  was  more 
truly  the  poet  of  our  democracy  than  an  eccentric 

*  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  Part  III.  Interlude  after  "  The 
Musician's  Tale."  Read  the  whole  passage. 


188     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

genius  like  Walt  Whitman,  whose  chants  are  seldom 
heard  beyond  the  most  exclusive  literary  circles. 

Having  spoken  of  Longfellow's  life,  and  the  wide 
spread  and  beautiful  influence  of  his  verse,  it  only 

remains  for  us  to  speak  briefly  of  his  poetry 
poetry.  itself.  Clearly  his  place  is  not  among  the 

great  poets  of  our  language.  We  can  feel 
the  same  natural  limitations  in  his  character  and  in 
his  work.  He  gave  us  all  there  was  in  him  to  give, 
but,  while  he  was  gentle,  scholarly,  and  lovable,  there 
is  an  intensity,  originality,  and  power  which  it  was 
not  given  him  to  possess.  It  is  no  disparagement  to 
Longfellow  to  say  that  his  poetry  lacks  those  pro- 
founder  arid  intenser  notes,  or  that  it  has  but  little 
basis  of  deep  or  original  thought.  But  if  Longfellow 
is  not  among  the  greater  poets,  among  the  humbler 
singers  who  are  the  comforters  and  inspirers  of  multi 
tudes  his  place  is  high,  and,  we  may  hope,  secure. 
Poetry  which,  like  Longfellow's,  is  unaffected,  whole 
some,  and  near  to  the  popular  sentiment,  has  a  good 
chance  of  outlasting  verse  of  a  far  more  complex  and 
ambitions  character.  The  lovely  idyll  of  Evangeline, 
for  instance,  is  but  a  simple  story,  simply  told.  But 
its  theme  is  one  of  lasting  power  over  men's  hearts: 
the  strength  of  woman's  devotion,  the  might  of  a  love 
which  "  hopes  and  endures  and  is  patient."  In  the 
beautiful  background  of  nature  through  which  the 
story  moves,  in  the  gentle  and  serene  beauty  which 
floods  all  the  poem,  we  recognize  the  fine  artistic  in 
stinct  which  gives  permanence  to  a  work.  But 
excellent  as  are  many  of  Longfellow's  longer  poems, 


LITERATURE    IN   NE\V    ENGLAND  189 

perhaps  he  is  at  his  best  in  his  ballads  and  songs.  By 
its  picturesqueness,  lyrical  movement,  and  concen 
trated  power,  the  Skeleton  in  Armor  rightfully  takes 
a  high  place  among  the  finest  ballads  in  the  language. 
By  this,  and  such  other  ballads  as  the  Wreck  of  the 
Hesperus,  Longfellow  stands,  in  at  least  one  depart 
ment  of  poetry,  among  the  best  masters.  Nor  should 
we  be  unmindful  of  the  more  delicate  and  softer  charm 
of  many  of  his  lyrics,  The  Bridge,  Rain  in  Summer, 
My  Lost  Youth,  and  many  more,  or  the  high  excel 
lence  of  such  sonnets  as  Nature  or  Dante.  In  the 
change  of  fashion  in  poetry,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
excellence  of  these  things  is  now  fairly  estimated  by 
the  critical  reader.  However  this  may  be,  there  can 
be  no  question  about  the  great  place  which  Longfellow 
holds  in  the  progress  not  merely  of  our  literature  but 
of  our  people.  His  life  and  work  together  stand  in 
our  thought  as  a  true  poem,  and  we  honor  him  as  one 
who,  while  he  may  not  have  been  a  "  puissant  singer," 
yet  left  the  world  "  the  sweeter  for  his  song." 

STUDY  LIST 
LONGFELLOW 

1.  Poems.       "Evangeline,"    "The    Courtship    of   Miles 
Standish,"    "Paul    Revere's    Ride,"    "The    Skeleton   in 
Armor,"  "  The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus,"  "  A  Psalm  of  Life," 
"The  Light  of  Stars,"  "The  Village  Blacksmith,"  "Rain 
in  Summer,'  "  The  Bridge,"  "The  Day  is  Done,"  "The 
Arrow  and  the  Song,"  "My  Lost  Youth,"  "The  Children's 
Hour,"  "Morituri  Salutamus,"  "Nature,"  "My  Books." 

2.  Biography   and    Criticism.      Life   by   Rev.    Samuel 


190      INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Longfellow  (3  vols.);  Life  by  E.  S.  Kobertson,  in  Great 
Writers  Series.  K.  H.  Stoddard's  Homes  and  Haunts  of 
our  Elder  Poets ;  H.  E.  Scudder's  Men  and  Letters  ;  Sted- 
man's  Poets  of  America ;  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social 
Essays ;  W.  E.  Henley's  Views  and  Revieivs ;  Whipple's 
Essays  and  Reviews,  I.  ;  "Whittier's  Literary  Recreations. 

NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  (1804-1864) 

From  Emerson,  the  thinker,  and  Longfellow,  the 
poet,  we  pass  to  Hawthorne,  the  master  of  romance. 
Emerson  gave  expression  to  the  ideal  and  visionary 
side  of  the  New  England  intellect;  Longfellow  minis 
tered  to  a  latent  sense  of  beauty;  but  Hawthorne  is 
probably  the  completest  and  most  discerning  inter 
preter  of  the  inmost  spirit  of  New  England  Puritanism. 
Others  may  have  given  us  more  graphic  and  realistic 
pictures  of  the  outward  appearance  and  conditions  of 
early  New  England  life,  but  none  has  penetrated  so 
deeply  beneath  the  surface  or  so  marvellously  laid  bare 
the  workings  of  its  soul.  Hawthorne  stands  in  a 
double  relation  to  this  Puritan  spirit.  Sprung  from 
a  Puritan  ancestry,  from  one  aspect  he  inherits  and 
shares  himself  in  certain  Puritan  traits :  yet,  like  the 
New  England  of  his  time,  he  has  outgrown  its  by 
gone  intolerance  and  severity,  and  from  another  aspect 
he  expresses  the  revulsion  against  them  in  all  its 
reactionary  force.  In  this  way  he  is  consequently  as 
representative,  though  not  as  personally  influential,  as 
Emerson  himself. 

When  we  regard  Hawthorne  from  the  first  of  these 
two  aspects,  or  as  an  inheritor  of  the  past,  we  see  how 


NATHANIEL     HAWTHORNE 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  191 

deeply  his  life  and  character  are  rooted  in  his  native 
soil.  The  Hawthornes  were  among  the  first  settlers; 
William  Hawthorne,  the  founder  of  the  American 
branch  of  the  family,  having  come  to  this  country 
with  John  Winthrop  in  1630.  For  generations  they 
had  lived  in  Salem,  a  spot  which  seems  the  very  heart 
of  Xew  England  Puritanism,  the  most  tragically 
puritanical  of  the  New  England  towns.  There  the 
"  dark  and  haughty  Endicott,"  the  destroyer  of  the 
Maypole  at  Morton's  Mount,  ruled  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Colony;  there  Quakers  were  persecuted;  there 
Roger  Williams  preached,  and  from  there  that  great 
"apostle  of  toleration"  was  intolerantly  driven  out. 
More  than  all,  Salem  was  a  center  of  that  dark  chapter 
in  the  history  of  Puritanism,  the  witchcraft  delusion, 
and  there  the  unhappy  victims  of  that  tragic  frenzy 
were  tried,  tormented,  and  put  to  death.  An  ancestor 
of  Hawthorne's  was  judge  in  one  of  these  witch-trials, 
and  tradition  said  that  he  had  brought  a  curse  upon 
himself  and  his  descendants  because  he  would  show 
no  pity.  Hawthorne  himself  refers  to  the  persecuting 
spirit  displayed  by  his  ancestors,  and  adds:  "  I,  the 
present  writer,  hereby  take  shame  upon  myself  for 
their  sakes. "  *  Such  was  the  somber  background  of 
Hawthorne's  genius.  Born  in  Salem,  July  4,  1804, 
nearly  all  his  boyhood  and  a  part  of  his  later  years 
were  spent  in  that  old  home  of  his  ancestors,  and  his 
brooding  and  keenly  sensitive  nature  was  thus  forced 
into  contact  with  the  melancholy  memories  of  its  past. 

*  Introduction  to  The  Scarlet  Letter, 


192     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

The  shadows  of  that  past  lie  across  his  work.  Accord 
ing  to  his  own  declaration,  which,  however,  we  must 
not  take  too  literally,  he  had  "all  the  Puritanic  traits, 
both  good  and  evil."  The  truth  appears  to  be  that 
while  he  belonged  to  a  new  era  which  had  outgrown 
the  intolerance  and  harshness  of  the  earlier  times,  he 
yet  shared  in  much  of  its  deepest  spiritual  life. 
Hence  those  obscure  problems  of  existence,  the  mystery 
of  sin,  the  influence  of  the  spiritual  and  the  unseen, 
which  fascinated  many  an  early  New  England  thinker, 
often  became  in  Hawthorne's  stories  the  actual  basis 
of  the  work.  He  writes  in  the  spirit  of  the  artist, 
he  does  not  force  his  moral  on  us  in  set  terms;  but 
if  we  penetrate  to  the  center  of  his  creations  of 
wonder  and  beauty  we  find  that  in  the  heart  of  the 
romance  is  hidden  a  sermon.  Such  traits  surround 
his  works  with  a  peculiar  atmosphere,  the  spiritual 
atmosphere  of  the  finest  spirits  of  New  England. 

But  while  Hawthorne  thus  recreated  the  vanished 
past  of  New  England  and  at  the  same  time  expressed 
in  his  own  nature  those  essential  elements  in  its  spirit 
which  had  come  down  to  his  own  times,  he  also  shared 
in  that  liberality  and  tolerance  which  distinguished 
the  leaders  of  his  own  generation.  He  realized  all  the 
shortcomings  of  Colonial  Puritanism,  and  portrayed  its 
"  grim  rigidity  "  with  an  unsparing  severity.  He  has 
no  part  in  the  Puritanic  formalities  and  restraints,  but 
is  keenly  responsive  to  Nature  and  beauty;  thus  his 
description  of  "the  Sylvan  Dance"  in  The  Marble 
Faun  is  a  veritable  prose  idyll  of  a  Golden  Age.  For 
a  moment  the  conventional  constraints  of  an  artificial 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  193 

life  are  flung  aside ;  Ponatello,  the  Faun  of  the  woods, 
has  made  Miriam  a  child  of  nature  like  himself,  and 
they  dance  in  the  checkered  sunshine  with  the  simple, 
overflowing  joyousness  of  children.  In  such  scenes, 
rare  as  they  are  amidst  the  shadows  that  darken  so 
much  of  Hawthorne's  work,  we  see  his  deep  if  wistful 
sympathy  with  health  and  youth  and  all  the  gladness 
and  the  freedom  of  the  world  of  nature.  In  the  early 
part  of  The  Scarlet  Letter  we  are  told  of  a  wild-rose 
bush  which  had  sprung  up  just  outside  the  iron-spiked 
door  of  a  Puritan  prison,  and  the  soft  pure  color  of 
those  delicate  pink  blossoms  seems  doubly  beautiful 
to  us  against  that  dark,  inexorable  background.  This 
picture  with  its  suggestive  contrast  may  be  remem 
bered  as  a  symbol  of  the  peculiar  genius  of  Hawthorne 
himself. 

Only  the  general  outline  of  Hawthorne's  life  can  be 
given  here.     As  a  boy  he  seems  to  have  been  a  great 
reader,  but  high-spirited,  and  inclined  to  neglect  the 
routine  of  his  appointed  studies.     Long 
fellow's  boyhood  has  been  spoken  of  as  that    . 
of  the  born  man  of  letters.     Hawthorne's 
was  rather  that  of  the  man  of  genius.     By  a  brief 
residence  in  Maine  he  early  developed  a  taste  for  soli 
tude,  easily  understood  in  one  of  his  shy  and  reticent 
nature.     After  graduating  from  Bowdoin  College  in 
1825,  lie  spent  twelve  years  in  Salem,  reading,  writing 
stories,  many  of  which  he  burned  and  some  of  which 
he  published,  and  becoming,  in  his  own  familiar  phrase, 
"  the  obscurest  man  of  letters  in  America."  *     Like 
*  Preface  to  the  Twice-Told  Tales. 


194     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

many  other  great  masters  of  prose,  he  appears  to  have 
won  that  delicate  finish  and  refined  beauty  which  dis 
tinguished  his  style  by  laborious  and  incessant  effort. 
Fanshaive,  his  early  romance  which  he  afterwards  sup 
pressed,  shows  but  little  trace  of  his  peculiar  power. 

The  real  beginning  of  Hawthorne's  work,  so  far  as 

any  true  recognition  of  it  is  concerned,  dates  from  the 

publication  of  the  first  series  of  his  Tivice- 

!irook  Told  Tales  in  1837.    In  18-41  he  became  a 

Farm. 

member  of  the  Brook  Farm  community,* 

but  found  farm-labor  and  romance-writing  hard  to 
reconcile.  Kecording  this  experience  in  his  journal, 
he  writes:  "  After  a  hard  day's  work  .  .  .  my  soul 
absolutely  refuses  to  be  poured  out  on  paper  ' ' ;  and 
adds  that  in  his  opinion  a  man's  higher  nature  "  may 
be  buried  and  perish  in  a  furrow  of  the  field  just  as 
well  as  under  a  pile  of  money,  "f  Nevertheless  the 
Brook  Farm  episode  proved  a  not  unfruitful  one  in 
the  end,  for  his  experience  there  furnished  materials 
which  Hawthorne  used  later  in  The  Blitliedale 
Romance  (1852).  In  1841  he  married,  and  settled  at 
Concord  in  the  "  Old  Manse."  \  Thus  happy  in  his 
marriage  and  surrounded  by  conditions  favorable  to 
his  genius,  he  speaks  of  himself  as  "  translated  to 
another  state  of  being."  Under  these  kindly  influ 
ences  he  composed  some  of  the  best  of  his  short 
stories,  which  appeared  with  others  previously  pub 
lished  in  his  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse  (184G).  In 

*  See  pp.  172-173,  supra. 

f  American  Note-Book  (June  1,  1841). 

\  See  p.  168,  supra. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  195 

the  same  year  he  was  forced  to  leave  his  paradise,  as 
he  playfully  called  it,  by  an  appointment  to  a  post  in 
the  custom-house  at  Salem.  Brought  thus  sharply 
into  daily  contact  with  that  practical  and  business  side 
of  life  from  which  he  was  by  nature  so  much  apart, 
Hawthorne,  as  he  tells  us,  set  himself  to  gather  what 
profit  was  to  be  had  from  it.*  lie  was  in  no  mood 
for  writing  during  the  three  years  he  held  this  place, 
but  it  was  during  this  time  that  his  great  romance 
The  Scarlet  Letter  took  shape  in  his  mind.  It  was 
not  until  he  was  removed  from  office  by  one  of  those 
changes  which  are  a  blot  on  our  politics  that  he  was 
able  to  carry  out  the  idea  over  which  he  had  been 
brooding.  The  publication  of  The  Scarlet  Letter  in 
1850  showed  that  Hawthorne  had  reached  a  new 
stage  in  his  career.  The  first  of  his  longer  romances, 
it  proved  his  ability  to  take  a  theme  similar  to  those 
in  many  of  his  short  studies,  and  successfully  handle 
it  on  a  larger  scale.  T//e  Scarlet  Letter  was  followed 
by  The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables  (1851)  and  the 
Blithedak  Romance  (185*2).  These,  with  The  Marble 
Faun  (18GO),  are  his  four  great  romances. 

In  1853  Hawthorne  was  appointed  Consul  at  Liver 
pool  by  President  Pierce,  formerly  his  classmate  at  col 
lege.  During  the  four  years  he  held  this  position  he 
published  nothing.  Released  from  his  consular  duties, 
he  spent  three  years  travelling  in  France,  Italy,  and 
part  of  England.  Some  of  the  results  of  these  seven 
years  of  European  experience  are  embodied  in  Haw- 

*  "  The  Custom-house,"  Introduction  to  The  Scarlet  Letter. 


196     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

thorne's  later  works,  the  English,  French,  and  Italian 
Note-Books,  and  The  Marble  Faun,  a  story  the  majes 
tic  background  of  which  is  Rome,  with  its  weight  of 
memories,  its  ruins,  its  art,  and  its  past. 

Hawthorne  returned  home  in  1800.  For  a  time  he 
worked  vigorously,  but  before  long  it  became  evident 
that  his  strength  was  failing.  It  is  pathetic  to  remem 
ber  that  the  theme  of  his  last  romance,  which  he  did 
not  live  to  finish,  was  the  elixir  of  life,  the  magic 
draught  by  which  man's  days  on  earth  might  be  per 
petually  prolonged.  He  died  May  19,  1864. 

One  of  the  first  facts  to  impress  us  in  a  general 
survey  of  Hawthorne's  work  is  its  unmistakable  origi 
nality.  Among  American  writers  there  are  a  few  who 
resemble  him,  but  none  who  really  contest 
Hawthorne  s  njg  supremacy  in  that  shadowy  region  he 
has  made  so  peculiarly  his  own.  In  all 
English  literature  we  can  hardly  recall  a  single  prose- 
writer,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Thomas  De 
Quincey,  whose  work  shows  any  similarity  of  tone. 
Probably  Hawthorne  has  most  in  common  with  cer 
tain  romance-writers  of  Germany,  but  in  the  litera 
ture  of  the  English  language  he  stands  practically 
alone.  The  peculiar  quality  which  thus  sets  Haw 
thorne's  work  apart  must  be  felt,  for  no  analysis  can 
adequately  explain  that  positive  but  undefinable  im 
pression  which  his  romances  produce.  It  may  be 
said  in  general,  however,  that  it  is  due  partly  to 
the  originality  of  his  aim,  and  partly  to  the  refined 
beauty  and  subtle  suggestiveness  of  his  style.  Unlike 
most  writers  of  fiction,  Hawthorne's  chief  object  is 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  19? 

not  to  depict  a  certain  phase  of  life  in  its  external 
aspect,  or  even  to  present  to  us  certain  characters :  it 
is  rather  to  study  the  working  of  certain  spiritual  ele 
ments  or  forces  in  human  life  hy  showing  us  their 
operations  in  a  given  case.  His  interest  centers  in 
some  moral  problem  or  some  spiritual  truth,  and  he 
tells  his  story  or  creates  his  characters  so  as  to  study 
the  problem  or  illustrate  the  truth.  Sin,  for  example, 
is  a  constant  element  back  of  human  life  and  action, 
and  two  of  his  greatest  romances  are  minute  and  con 
trasted  studies  of  the  nature  and  workings  of  this 
terrible  force.  In  the  first  of  them,  The  Scarlet 
Letter,  he  traces  the  effects  of  sin  on  a  group  of  char 
acters — the  effect  on  one  soul  of  a  sin  discovered  and 
punished,  the  effect  on  another  of  a  sin  concealed. 
He  shows  its  noxious  effect,  not  only  on  the  original 
transgressors,  but  on  the  souls  of  others.  On  the  one 
hand  it  awakens  an  unholy  passion  for  revenge,  and 
transforms  a  man  into  a  fiend;  on  the  other,  as  an  in 
heritance  by  that  law  which  visits  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,  it  is  mysteriously  mingled 
with  the  nature  of  a  child. 

The  second  of  these  books,  The  Marble  Faun, 
raises  the  old  question  of  the  reason  for  sin's  very 
existence.  Eoger  Chillingworth  in  The  Scarlet  Letter 
was  utterly  corrupted  by  sin,  but  Donatello  in  The 
Marble  Faun,  sinning  not  deliberately  but  impulsively, 
attained  through  remorse  and  repentance  a  deeper 
and  fuller  life  so, — as  in  Eden, — sin  destroys  the 
primitive  innocence  but  brings  knowledge.  Is  sin, 
then,  permitted  as  a  means  of  growth  ?  The  question 


198     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

is  asked  but  not  answered.  Now  these  two  books  are 
admirable  examples  of  Hawthorne's  aim  and  method. 
In  each  the  result  is  not  a  sermon,  but  a  work  of  art, 
for  the  moral  problem  is  not  crudely  stated,  but 
diffused  throughout  the  whole  substance  of  the  work; 
yet  so  completely  does  this  spiritual  element  pervade 
Hawthorne's  work  that  we  feel  ourselves  transported 
in  his  romances  to  a  world  which  is  somehow  un 
familiar.  It  is  like  a  familiar  landscape  metamor 
phosed  at  the  touch  of  moonlight,  filled  with  unaccus 
tomed  lights  and  shadows,  and  vague  with  things  but 
dimly  seen.  While,  as  in  The  Scarlet  Letter,  the  forms 
of  the  grim-visaged  Puritans  move  before  us  with 
their  "  steeple-crowned  hats  and  sad-colored  gar 
ments,"  they  seem  but  as  phantoms  to  us  beside  our 
haunting  sense  that  the  true  reality  is  the  spiritual 
and  the  unseen.  Men  and  women,  their  joys  and 
sorrows,  are  thus  comparatively  unreal  to  us  in  Haw 
thorne,  because  he  so  constantly  regards  the  visible 
and  external  as  a  symbol  or  a  manifestation  of  the 
obscure  world  of  thought  and  spirit.  Hawthorne  may 
consequently  be  regarded  as  the  master  of  a  kind  of 
romantic  allegory.  Spenser  in  his  Faerie  Queene  made 
his  knights  and  ladies  represent  or  personify  the 
various  virtues  and  vices,  but  Hawthorne  works  more 
subtly  than  this.  He  does  not  embody  any  sin  or  any 
temptation  in  a  human  shape,  but  reveals  it  as  a  purely 
spiritual  energy  acting  through  and  in  the  lives  and 
souls  of  men.  Thus  the  ideal  temper  which  distin 
guished  Emerson  distinguished  Hawthorne  also;  but 
in  the  one  it  was  expressed  through  philosophy,  in  the 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  199 

other  it  put  on  the  glorified  garment  of  urt.  "  The 
idealist,"  wrote  Emerson,  "  speaking  of  events,  sees 
them  as  spirits."  Such  an  idealist  was  Hawthorne, 
the  voice  of  the  deepened  life  of  New  England,  and 
perhaps  the  greatest  writer  that  we  have  yet  given  to 
the  literature  of  the  world. 

STUDY  LIST 
II A  WTHORNE 

1.  Sketches.      "The  Old   Manse,"   "Birds   and  Bird- 
Voices,''    in    Mosses  from  an   Old  Manse;    "Sunday  at 
Home,"  "  A  Rill  from  the  Town  Pump,"  "Sights  from  a 
Steeple,"  in  Twice-told  Tales. 

2.  Short  Stories.     "Legends  of  the  Province  House," 
"  The  Gray  Champion,"  ''The  May-pole  of  Merry  Mount," 
"Endicott   and   the   Red  Cross,"    "The   Minister's   Black 
Veil,"  "  The  Gentle  Boy,"  "  Wakefield,"  "  The  Great  Car 
buncle,"  "  DavidSwan,"  "  The  Ambitious  Guest,"  in  Twice- 
told  Tales;  "The  Birthmark,"  " Rappaccini's  Daughter," 
in  Mosses  from  an   Old  Manse ;  "The   Snow  Image  "and 
"The  Great  Stone  Face,"  in  TJie  Snow  Image  and  other 
Twice-told  Tales. 

3.  A  Wonder  Book  ;  Tanglewood  Tales. 

4.  The  Scarlet  Letter  ;  The  Marble  Faun. 

5.  Biography  and  Criticism.      Nathaniel  Hawthorne 
and  his  Wife,  by  Julian  Hawthorne  (2  vols.)  ;  A  Study  of 
Hawthorne,  by  G.  P.  Lathrop.     Life,  by  Henry  James,  in 
English  Men  of  Letters  Series ;  Life,  by  Moncure  D.  Con- 
way,    in   Great   Writers   Series;    "Hawthorne,"   in  J.   T. 
Fields'   Yesterdays  with  Authors ;    Recollections  of  Haiv- 
thorne,  by  Horatio  Bridges.   See  also  Curtis's  Literary  and 
Social  Esays ;  Leslie  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  1st. 
series ;    R.   H.   Hutton's   Essays    in   Literary    Criticism ; 
AVhipple's  Character  and  Characteristic  Men;  G.  Barnett 
Smith's  Poets  and  Novelists. 


200     INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

OTHER  WRITERS  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  GROUP 

So  far  we  have  confined  our  attention  to  three  of 
the  representative  writers  of  the  New  England  group. 
But  if  we  would  appreciate  the  magnitude  and  im 
portance  of  this  great  period  of  New  England  litera 
ture,  we  must  look  at  it  also  as  a  whole;  we  must  try 
to  gain  some  conception  of  the  large  number  of 
distinguished  writers  connected  with  it,  and  of  the 
extent  and  variety  of  their  work.  It  is  remarkable  to 
consider  how  little  America  had  done  in  certain 
branches  of  literature  when  this  period  opened,  and 
how  much  it  had  accomplished  through  the  labors  of 
these  writers  before  it  closed. 

Besides  the  three  writers  already  studied,  the  period 
gave  us  three  who  are  justly  grouped  with  them: 
James  Russell  Lowell,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and 
John  Greenleaf  "Whittier.  Before  it,  while  we  had 
produced  respectable  chroniclers  or  writers  of  bio 
graphies,  we  had  done  almost  nothing  in  the  higher 
branches  of  historical  writing.  The  period  gave  us 
four  of  our  most  eminent  historians:  Prescott,  Motley, 
Bancroft,  arid  Parkman.  Among  many  other  scholars 
and  literary  critics  we  may  mention  Ticknor,  tiie 
historian  of  Spanish  literature;  the  essayists  E.  P. 
Whipple  and  Henry  Tuckerman;  the  Greek  scholar 
Felton;  the  profound  student  of  English,  Francis  J. 
Child,  editor  of  the  Scotch  and  English  Ballads;  and 
Charles  Eliot  Norton,  the  Dante  scholar  and  the  critic 
of  Art.  Prominent  among  the  older  men  of  this  group 
is  that  strange,  shy  haunter  of  the  woods,  Henry  D. 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  201 

Thorcau ;  ill  at  ease  iu  the  midst  of  conventionalities 
and  at  home  in  the  wilderness,  the  preacher  of  a 
simpler  and  more  unfettered  life.  There,  too,  were 
men  of  a  yet  broader  and  nobler  type:  George  Ripley, 
the  devoted  laborer  at  Brook  Farm;  and  George 
William  Curtis,  the  patriot,  orator,  and  man  of  letters. 
Indeed  we  must  not  think  of  this  movement  as  purely 
literary;  its  foundations  were  laid  in  character,  and 
it  was  strong  on  its  moral  and  political  sides.  Mrs. 
Stowe's  terrible  picture  of  slavery  in  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,  and  the  eloquence  of  the  abolitionist  orators, 
Wendell  Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  did  a 
great  work  in  helping  to  arouse  the  nation's  conscience. 
These  are  but  some  of  the  great  names  which  might 
be  mentioned ;  one  writer  crowded  after  another,  and 
the  period  still  lingers  with  us  to-day  in  Thomas 
Wentworth  Iligginson  and  Edward  Everett  Hale. 

If  we  are  inclined  to  wonder  at  the  power  thus 
suddenly  put  forth,  we  must  remember  that  besides 
the  especial  causes  already  alluded  to  there  lay  back 
of  the  whole  movement  the  shrewd  sense,  the  spiritual 
vision,  the  sound  manhood,  and  the  moral  impetus  of 
a  great  race.  So  it  is  that  this  time  of  awakening  life 
comes  to  the  bleak  region  of  New  England  like  the 
coming  of  spring.  Warm  airs  heavy  with  the  odors 
of  some  Southern  land  blow  softly  over  her  rocky 
fields,  and  the  grass  is  starred  with  flowers;  warm 
suns  thaw  the  ice  of  her  frozen  streams,  and  the 
waters  are  poured  out  in  a  flood. 

The  time  is  too  full  of  activity,  the  literature  too 
abundant,  for  us  to  be  able  here  to  do  more  than  select 


202     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

a  few  of  the  eminent  writers  worthy  of  study,  and 
speak  of  them  only  with  comparative  briefness. 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  (1819-1891)  holds  among 
the  rest  a  position  which  is  both  lofty  and  distinctive. 

Like  so  many  of  his  great  contemporaries, 
James  Rus-     ••  .e       _c       M        i  •  i    i     j  i 

sell  Lowell  ne  came  of  a  family  which  had  been  asso 
ciated  with  the  higher  side  of  New  England 
life  since  the  early  days  of  the  Colony.  Among  his 
ancestors  were  clergymen,  judges,  and  men  eminent 
for  their  practical  ability  and  public  spirit.  His 
father,  a  minister  of  a  church  in  Boston,  was  a  man 
of  sterling  worth  and  energy,  and  Lowell,  like  Long 
fellow,  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  cultured  surroundings, 
enlarged  by  a  free  access  to  the  best  books.  Nor 
were  books  the  only  influence  about  him ;  the  present 
as  well  as  the  past  was  alive  with  inspiration,  for  New 
England  was  pressing  forward  under  the  spur  of  new 
ideas.  Lowell  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1838. 
Five  years  before  this  William  Lloyd  Garrison  had 
definitely  begun  the  agitation  for  the  immediate  free 
ing  of  the  slave  by  the  establishment  of  his  abolitionist 
paper,  the  Liberator.  Two  years  before  Lowell's 
graduation,  Emerson  had  become  the  center  of  the 
transcendentalists  by  the  publication  of  Nature,.  Thus 
when  the  future  poet  of  the  Biglow  Papers  came  to 
manhood  the  Northern  conscience  was  aroused  and  the 
Northern  intellect  quickened  to  an  intenser  life  by  its 
enthusiasm  for  the  thought  of  new  teachers.  By 
nature  Lowell  was  dreamy  and  poetic,  and  an  ardent 
lover  of  beauty,  but  he  had  in  him  a  vast  reserve  of 
strength.  He  had  the  keen  humor,  the  shrewd  obser- 


JAMES     RUSSELL     LOWELL 


hlTEUATUHE   IK    NEW   ENGLAND  203 

vation  and  practical  sense,  the  capacity  for  righteous 
indignation  and  patriotic  devotion,  which  fitted  him 
to  be  the  champion  of  a  great  cause.  In  the  first  flush 
of  his  generous  and  high-souled  youth,  when  a  strong 
nation  was  rousing  herself  to  face  a  coming  crisis, 
Lowell's  nature  gained  a  manly  force  and  earnestness 
in  this  uplifting  and  invigorating  air.  The  growth  of 
his  character  under  these  influences  is  reflected  in  his 
earlier  poems.  Studies  of  different  types  of  women, 
comparable  to  certain  early  efforts  of  Tennyson,  give 
place  to  poems  of  a  stronger  and  sterner  strain.  We 
have  indeed  the  excellent  but  somewhat  imitative 
treatment  of  Old  World  themes,  the  poems  on  classical 
subjects  such  as  Rhcecus,  or  The  Shepherd  of  King 
Admetus;  the  mediaeval  Legend  of  Brittany,  the  soft 
ened  beauty  of  which  recalls  the  languorous  atmos 
phere  of  Keats;  but  we  have  also  the  expression  of  a 
'deep  conviction  that  the  poet  of  our  new  land  must 
be  the  poet  of  freedom  and  human  brotherhood,  that 
he  must  put  aside  the  properties  of  "  silken  bards," 
and  speak  his  new  message  in  the  power  of  his  man 
hood. 

' '  Our  country  hath  a  gospel  of  her  own 

To  preach  and  practice  before  all  the  world — 

The  freedom  and  divinity  of  man." 

Few  Americans  have  felt  so  deeply  as  Lowell  the 
true  ideal  of  our  democracy.  He  not  only  loved  our 
country  for  what  it  was;  he  saw  its  faults,  and  yet  rose 
to  the  high  conception  of  what  it  might  be  in  the  his 
tory  of  mankind.  It  is  the  strength  of  his  moral  fiber 
and  the  noble  ardor  of  his  patriotism  that  gives  his 


204     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

verse  its  resonant  and  distinctive  character.  So  in  the 
midst  of  his  classicism  and  medievalism  his  Stamps  on 
Freedom,  the  first  of  his  antislavery  poems,  ring  out 
like  the  call  of  a  trumpet. 

"  They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  speak 
For  the  fallen  and  the  weak  ; 

***** 
They  are  slaves  who  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three. " 

At  a  time  when  to  be  an  Abolitionist  was  to  invite 
ridicule  and  unpopularity,  Lowell  was  one  of  those 
who  dared  to  be  in  the  right  with  a  few.  The  Present 
Crisis,  inspired  by  the  question  as  to  the  introduction 
of  slavery  into  Texas,  then  recently  annexed  to  the 
United  States,  contains  lines  that  sent  a  thrill  through 
the  manhood  of  the  North.  The  young  poet  had 
come,  like  Childe  Roland  in  Browning's  poem,  to  the 
door  of  our  Dark  Tower  of  shame,  and  dauntlessly  he 
set  the  "  slug-horn  to  his  lips  "  and  blew  his  note  of 
challenge.  If  the  past  is  with  the  poets  of  the  Old 
World,  the  future  belongs  peculiarly  to  the  poets  of 
the  New,  and  The  Present  Crisis  is  aflame  with  the 
feeling  that,  as  Emerson  had  declared,  "  to-day  is  a 
new  day." 

' '  New  occasions  teach  new  duties,  Time  makes  ancient  good 

uncouth  ; 

They  must  upward  still  and  onward  who  would  keep  abreast 
of  Truth." 

In  such  a  strain  there  sounds  the  magnificent  confi 
dence,  the  indomitable  resolution,  of  a  young  land;  it 
is  the  true  voice  of  our  America. 


LITERATURE   IX    XE\V    EXGLAXD  205 

In  1846  the  poems  which  made  up  the  first  series 
of  Lowell's  great  satiric  masterpiece,  The  Biglow 
Papers,  began  to  appear  in  the  Boston  Courier.  Up 
to  this  time  Lowell  had  been  the  poet  of  love,  beauty, 
and  patriotism;  his  work  had  been  full  of  a  high 
seriousness;  but  in  the  Biglow  Papers  elements  of 
his  genius  which  had  yet  found  no  expression  in  his 
verse  became  suddenly  apparent.  The  poems  were 
inspired  by  our  war  with  Mexico,  which  was  believed 
to  have  been  undertaken  in  order  to  gain  new  terri 
tory  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  They  are  written 
in  the  Yankee  dialect,  and  are  supposed  to  be  the  work 
of  Hosea  Biglow,  "  an  up-country  man,  capable  of  dis 
trict-school  English,"  but  in  the  habit  of  relapsing 
into  his  homely  native  speech  when  strongly  moved. 
A  pedantic  Mr.  Wilbur,  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church 
at  Jaalam,  is  introduced  under  the  guise  of  editor. 
Probably  no  one  was  more  surprised  than  Lowell  him 
self  at  the  success  of  this  novel  experiment;  he  was 
surprised  at  the  power  of  the  weapon  he  had  made, 
and  when  the  slavery  question  reached  its  climax  in 
civil  war,  a  second  series  of  Biglow  Papers  was  added 
to  the  first. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Biglow  Papers  form  one  of 
our  most  noteworthy  contributions  to  literature.  It 
is  often  said,  and  quite  truly,  that  no  other  country 
but  New  England  could  have  produced  them.  Haw 
thorne  embodies  the  Puritan  spirit ;  Lowell  here  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  the  every-day  Yankee,  in  un 
deniable  flesh  and  blood.  Lowell  loved  the  flavor  of 
the  common  speech,  and  by  a  single  effort  he  has 


206     INTRODUCTION1   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

lifted  the  twang,  the  drawl,  the  quaint  phrases  of  the 
down-east  countryman,  into  literature.  From  this 
aspect  the  Biglow  Papers  are  local;  but  they  are  much 
more — they  are  among  our  few  distinctly  national 
poems,  more  fully  and  truly  American  than  Hiawatha 
or  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish.  While  they 
represent  Xew  England,  they  also  represent  much 
that  is  best  in  the  American  people — the  clear 
sightedness,  the  shrewd  humor,  the  essential  right- 
ness  on  great  moral  issues,  which  are  deep-seated  in 
our  democracy.  Lowell  might  have  expressed  the 
views  advanced  in  the  Bigloiv  Papers  in  that  scholarly 
phrase  or  that  elevated  verse  which  would  have  been 
his  own  natural  medium,  but  he  believed  that  the 
moral  sense  of  the  plain  average  American  man  was 
sound  and  true;  and  so,  instead  of  speaking  for  himself 
individually,  in  his  own  way,  he  instinctively  chose  to 
speak  as  a  plain  man  of  the  people,  in  homely,  pithy 
phrase.  Hence  we  have  in  the  Biglow  Papers  not 
the  scholar  writing  from  his  library,  but  the  voice  of 
the  nation.  As  a  work  of  art  the  poem  holds  a  high 
and-  distinctly  unique  place  among  the  satires  of  the 
language,  differing  widely  in  form  and  spirit  from 
the  satiric  masterpieces  of  Dryden,  Pope,  Butler,  or 
Byron.  The  mixture  of  humor  and  deadly  earnest  is 
a  national  trait,  and  the  Biglow  Papers  differ  from 
many  English  satires  in  mingling  wit  and  absurdity 
with  a  genuine  poetic  beauty  and  a  spirit  of  the  in- 
tensest  patriotism.  There  is  a  wide  range  from  such 
incisive  verses  as  The  Pious  Editor's  Creed  and  What 
Mr.  Robinson  Thinks  to  that  idyll  of  the  farm-house 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  207 

kitchen,  The  Court  in\  or  the  truth  and  beauty  with 
which  the  Xew  England  landscape  is  made  real  to  us 
in  Sunthin'  in  the  Pastoral  Line,  or  Hosea  Biglow  to 
the  Editor  of  the  Atlantic.  In  all  \ve  recognize  an 
element  unfortunately  rare  in  the  pure  and  melodious 
strains  of  our  American  verse,  the  note  of  a  masculine 
strength.  When  we  add  to  the  poems  of  patriotism 
already  mentioned  such  masterpieces  as  The  Washers  of 
the  Shroud,  and  the  noble  but  more  unequal  Commem 
oration  Ode,  written  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  we 
realize  that  Lowell  is  virtually  the  laureate  of  our  Re 
public,  the  poetic  voice  of  our  national  life  and  ideals. 
AVe  have  so  far  spoken  of  Lowell  as  the  poet  of 
patriotism,  but  to  pass  over  his  poetry  of  a  wholly  dif 
ferent  kind  would  be  to  give  an  entirely  wrong  con 
ception  of  his  work.  lie  could  be  nobly  strenuous  or 
inimitably  humorous;  but  he  had  also  an  intimate 
knowledge  and  deep  love  of  nature,  a  tenderness  and  a 
delight  in  beauty,  and  this  gentle  and  more  dreamy 
side  of  his  sensitive  nature  also  uttered  itself  in  his 
verse.  So,  with  a  rare  delicacy  of  perception,  Lowell 
could  turn  aside  from  the  great  present  questions  and, 
like  his  "musing  organist,"  could  "build  a  bridge 
from  Dreamland  for  his  lay."  The  poet  of  the 
Biglow  Papers  is  thus  the  poet  of  The  Vision  of  Sir 
Launfal,  with  the  passionate  nature  poetry  of  its  pre 
lude;  of  the  love-sonnets;  of  The  Dandelion  ;  of  In  the 
Twilight,  perhaps  the  most  subtle  and  beautiful  of  all 
the  shorter  poems.  Reading  such  poems,  we  know 
that  Lowell  was  able  not  only  to  "  blow  through 
bronze,"  but  also  to  "  breathe  through  silver";  yet, 


208     INTRODUCTIOX   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

filled  as  they  are  with  the  poetic  spirit,  we  feel  at  times 
that  the  poet  has  not  fully  mastered  the  secret  of  his 
art.  His  life  was  crowded  with  many  interests;  he  did 
not  consecrate  himself  to  poetry  with  the  exclusive 
devotion  of  Tennyson ;  and  his  work  has  an  inequality 
absent  from  the  art  of  that  great  master.  We  are 
often  disturbed  by  a  false  or  jarring  note,  and  miss  at 
times  the  magical  phrase.  Yet  Lowell  was  a  genuine 
poet,  and  we  see  this  in  the  advance  he  makes  in  the 
sweetness  and  perfection  of  his  work.  To  the  end  we 
see  him  gaining  greater  finish  and  delicacy,  and  some 
of  his  most  perfect  if  not  his  strongest  poems  are 
among  his  last. 

Lowell  began  his  work  as  a  poet,  but  from  the  first 
he  had  been  a  Avide  reader,  absorbing  books  with  the 
scholar's  enthusiasm  and  the  poet's  sympathy  and  in 
sight.  As  he  approached  middle  age  this  scholarly 
side  of  his  mind  began  to  find  more  direct  expression. 
In  185-4  he  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  the 
British  Poets  at  the  Lowell  Institute,  and  in  the  year 
following  was  appointed  to  succeed  Longfellow  in  the 
chair  of  Modern  Languages  and  Literature  at  Har 
vard.  After  preparing  himself,  as  Longfellow  had 
done,  by  a  foreign  trip,  he  entered  on  the  duties  of  his 
professorship  in  1857.  The  twenty  years  of  college 
work  which  followed  were  years  of  intense  and  loving 
toil.  George  William  Curtis  tells  us  that  in  these 
years  Lowell  sometimes  studied  fourteen  hours  in  the 
day,  20  "  relentless"  was  his  devotion  to  study.  This 
period  of  scholarship  is  notable  for  Lowell's  work  as 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  209 

prose-writer  and  literary  critic,  and  the  best  results  of 
his  studies  and  his  university  work  were  condensed 
into  essays  which  are  the  finest  addition  America  has 
yet  made  to  the  literature  of  criticism.  Like  his 
verse,  Lowell's  prose  is  alive  with  a  characteristic 
audacity  and  variety;  there  is  no  even  and  colorless 
excellence.  The  essays  are  filled  with  an  intense  in 
dividuality.  All  is  poured  out  in  profusion — the  irre 
pressible  daring  humor,  the  wealth  of  learning,  the 
quaint  memorable  phrase,  the  homely  telling  allusion; 
and  in  all  there  is  vigor,  freshness,  and  unconveu- 
tionality.  He  has  explored  the  whole  range  of  English 
literature,  and  brought  many  of  its  greatest  masters 
nearer  to  our  sympathy  and  understanding.  He 
delights  to  give  us,  as  in  the  monumental  essay  on 
Dante,  the  fruit  of  years  of  loving  toil.  In  Lowell's 
prose  there  is  a  delightful  sense  of  ease  and  power; 
lacking  a  classic  finish,  it  has  a  warm  humanity,  and 
it  often  reaches  a  grace  and  felicity  of  manner  that  is 
the  delight  of  lovers  of  style.  Lowell's  literary  criti 
cism  is  the  more  remarkable  because  America  has  been 
and  is  singularly  deficient  in  this  branch  of  literature. 
England  has  had  dozens  of  capable  critics  during  the 
last  half -century,  while  among  us  Lowell  stands  almost 
alone, — "  the  only  critic  of  high  rank,"  as  one  writer 
asserts,  "  that  our  literature  owns."  During  the 
twenty  years  of  his  professorship  at  Harvard,  Lowell 
was  one  of  the  founders  and,  for  the  first  five  years, 
editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  later  one  of  the 
joint  editors  of  the  Xorth  American  Review.  These 


210     INTRODUCTION"   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

two  periodicals  have  had  a  most  important  part  in  our 
literary  development. 

Lowell  was  not  only  poet,  scholar,  and  critic,  but 
back  of  all  his  varied  interests  he  was  the  patriot,  the 
wise,  large-hearted  citizen ;  and  in  this  more  than  any 
thing  else  we  find  the  basis  of  his  life  and  work.  In 
the  fullness  of  his  splendid  powers  he  was  called  upon 
to  represent  his  country.  He  was  first  Minister  to 
Spain  and  then  to  England,  being  sent  to  Madrid  in 
1877  and  transferred  to  London  in  1880.  His  resi 
dence  in  England  was  far  more  than  a  great  social 
triumph.  His  charm,  wit,  tact,  and  learning  made 
him  everywhere  liked  and  honored.  He  came,  as  he 
said,  as  a  distant  cousin,  but  went  back  as  a  brother. 
He  was  in  demand  as  the  chosen  orator  on  great  public 
occasions;  he  made  the  aptest  of  after-dinner  speeches. 
But  through  all  this,  pleasant  as  it  was  in  itself,  he 
accomplished  a  great  purpose  never  lost  sight  of :  he 
changed  and  raised  the  English  idea  of  America,  and 
brought  the  two  greatest  English-speaking  countries 
nearer  together.  In  these  later  years  of  his  life  he 
was  conspicuously  the  public  servant;  many  of  his 
speeches  are  more  or  less  occupied  with  political 
themes,  and  many  of  his  matured  opinions  are  summed 
up  in  his  address  on  Democracy  in  1884. 

Lowell  was  our  strongest  if  not  our  best  poet,  our 
greatest  critic,  and  one  of  our  greatest  scholars. 
Through  his  many-sidedness  he  is  our  most  repre 
sentative  man  of  letters,  the  true  dean  of  the  faculty. 
We  admire  him  for  all  these  things,  but  we  admire  him 
even  more  for  that  greatness  of  character  which  was 


OLIVER     WENDELL     HOLMES 


LITERATUEE   IN   NEW    ENGLAND  211 

the  basis  of  them  all.  "  "We  value  character,"  says 
Lowell  himself,  "  more  than  any  amount  of  talent."  * 
So  while  it  is  much  that  Lowell  should  so  fitly  repre 
sent  American  letters,  it  is  yet  more  that  in  himself  he 
should  represent  and  stand  for  American  manhood;  a 
shining  example  for  us  who  come  after,  a  demonstra 
tion  that  our  democracy  with  all  its  shortcomings  has 
yet  the  force  to  be  the  maker  of  men. 

Another  notable  member  of  this  Cambridge  group, 
the  last  to  leave  ns  of  all  the  greater  New  England 
writers,  was  OLIVER  WEXDELL  HOLMES  Oliver 
(1809-1894).  Versatile  as  he  was,  physi-  Wendell 
cian,  poet,  lecturer,  novelist,  and  "  auto 
crat"  of  that  immortal  "  breakfast-table,"  the  distinc 
tive  share  which  Holmes  took  in  his  epoch  is  unmistak 
able  almost  from  the  first.  Passing  to  Holmes  from 
Emerson,  Hawthorne,  or  Lowell,  we  are  aware  that 
he  is  of  a  slighter  intellectual  build;  that  his  especial 
faculty  is  not  so  much  depth  or  power,  as  an  inimita 
ble  lightness,  deftness,  and  grace.  In  a  word,  while 
he  is  many  other  things,  he  is  pre-eminently  the 
humorist,  the  kindly,  keen-witted,  fun-loving  spirit, 
whose  audacious  flashes  of  merriment  startled^  the 
solemn  gloom  that  had  so  long  hung  heavily  over  New 
England.  We  have  grown  to  look  upon  humor  as  one 
of  our  most  distinguishing  national  traits,  and  as 
fellow-countrymen  of  Josh  Billings  and  Mark  Twain 
we  regard  it  as  a  dominant  element  in  our  literature. 
But  up  to  the  advent  of  Holmes  our  higher  literature 

*  Essay  on  Rousseau. 


212     INTRODUCTION'    TO    AMERICAN'    LITERATURE 

had,  with  the  exception  of  Irving,  been  uniformly 
serious.  It  would,  of  course,  be  little  short  of  impious 
to  look  for  levity  in  the  New  England  of  Michael 
Wigglesworth  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  but  even  out 
side  of  Puritanic  limits  our  authors  who  wrote  best 
seldom  smiled.  As  Mr.  George  William  Curtis  ex 
presses  it,  "  the  rollicking  laughter  of  Knickerbocker 
was  a  solitary  sound  in  the  American  air  until  the 
blithe  carol  of  Holmes  returned  a  kindred  spell."* 
Yet  the  spell  that  Holmes'  keen  wit  exercises  over  us, 
while  perhaps  akin  to  that  which  charms  us  in  the 
rich  humor  of  Irving,  is  far  from  being  absolutely 
the  same.  The  pages  of  Irving  are  luminous  with  a 
softer,  warmer  glow,  while  those  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  while  not  untouched  by  pathos,  sparkle  with 
a  sharper  and  colder  light.  In  this,  as  in  all  things, 
Holmes  was  the  true  child  of  the  great  section  which 
produced  him,  and,  like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries, 
he  shows  at  almost  every  point  the  force  and  persist 
ence  of  those  traits  which  went  to  the  making  of  New 
England.  He  exemplifies  in  himself  the  truth  of  his 
own  doctrine  of  the  strength  of  inherited  influences. 
The  blood  of  some  of  the  best  and  oldest  families  of 
New  England,  the  Wendells,  the  Olivers,  the  Quincys, 
ran  in  his  veins.  Among  his  ancestors  was  that  fluent 
poetess  Mistress  Anne  Bradstreet,  "  The  Tenth  Muse. " 
Thus  Holmes  was  indeed  the  son  of  New  England, 
but  in  a  yet  stricter  and  more  especial  sense  he  was 
the  child  of  that  exclusive  culture  focussed  in  and 

*  Literary  and  Social  Essays,  p.  218. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW   ENGLAND  213 

about  Boston.  Born  almost  under  the  shadow  of  Har 
vard,  in  the  days  when  Cambridge  was  a  quiet  country 
village,  he  received  his  collegiate  and  his  early  medi 
cal  training  at  that  great  university.  Early  associa 
tions  and  friendships  had  a  lasting  power  over  him ; 
his  attachments  were  broad  and  deep-rooted.  After 
spending  some  years  abroad  in  order  to  continue  his 
medical  studies  at  Paris  and  Edinburgh,  he  returned  to 
Boston,  becoming  henceforth,  except  for  a  few  brief 
intervals,  a  fixed  and  notable  part  of  the  city's  social 
and  intellectual  life.  As  a  college  boy  he  had  been 
the  clasi  poet;  as  a  man  he  was  peculiarly  the  "  lau 
reate  of  Harvard"  and  of  Boston.  Year  after  year 
he  celebrated  the  reunions  of  his  class  in  his  witty, 

T^_J tLJ. 

unfailing  verse,  and  one  of  his  latest  poems  was  occa 
sioned  by  the  introduction  of  the  trolley-cars  into  his 
beloved  town.  With  that  town  everything  combined 
to  inseparably  associate  him;  he  was  a  part  of  its  life 
by  his  affectionate  hold  on  its  past,  by  those  gifts  of 
wit,  kindliness,  and  personal  charm  which  made  him 
so  long  its  pride  and  ornament.  And  as  Walter  Scott 
loved  Edinburgh,  as  Dr.  Johnson  or  Charles  Lamb 
or  Dickens  loved  London,  so  Dr.  Holmes  loved  Bos 
ton,  and  that  placid  suburb  where  his  life  began. 
Few  authors  have  put  more  of  their  personality  into 
their  writings.  Whether  he  wrote  prose  or  verse, 
medical  lectures,  or  "  medicated  novels,"  the  result 
in  any  case  was  but  an  overflow  of  the  man  himself. 
For  a  generation  he  was  one  of  Boston's  cherished 
talkers,  and  in  his  works  he  simply  indefinitely  en- 
largos  his  audience  and  talks  in  print.  His  best  and 


214     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

most  characteristic  work  in  prose,  The  Autocrat  of  the 
Break  fast- Table,  and  its  successors,  consist  of  snatches 
of  fragmentary  conversations  and  reflections,  in  which 
the  chief  talker  is  readily  identified  with  the  author 
himself. 

Holmes  first  won  fame  as  a  poet.  As  a  very  young 
man  he  wrote  his  spirited  verses  Old  Ironsides,  a 
ringing  protest  against  the  proposed  breaking  up  of 
the  veteran  war-frigate  the  Constitution,  a  ship  which 
had  borne  an  honorable  part  in  the  War  of  1812.  The 
appeal  went  straight  to  the  people's  heart ;  it  was  taken 
up  throughout  the  country,  and  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  poet's  reputation.  In  1836,  the  year  of  the 
appearance  of  Emerson's  Nature,  Holmes  read  a 
longer  and  more  ambitious  composition,  Poetry,  a 
Metrical  Essay,  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society. 
In  this  same  year  he  published  his  first  volume  of 
poems,  which  included  The  Last  Leaf,  The  Treadmill 
Song,  and  other  familiar  pieces.  Holmes'  muse,  if 
not  often  very  lofty,  was  always  surprisingly  prompt 
and  available.  A  fluent  versifier,  with  an  easy,  agree 
able  flow  of  meter,  with  wit,  good-fellowship,  and 
enough  real  feeling  to  serve  as  a  corrective,  he  became 
incomparably  the  best  and  the  most  popular  of  our 
writers  of  poems  for  especial  occasions.  It  is  said  that 
forty-seven  per  cent  of  his  poems  were  thus  written, 
as  it  were,  to  order,  in  honor  of  the  most  various  cele 
brations.  The  dedication  of  a  cemetery,  or  a  State 
dinner;  the  meeting  of  a  medical  association,  or  the 
anniversary  of  an  agricultural  society;  centennial  and 
semi-centennial  celebrations,  and  a  long  succession  of 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  215 

class-reunions, — on  all  such  occasions  Holmes  showed 
his  happy  gift  of  putting  into  verse  the  fitting  words. 
A  greater  poet  might  perhaps  have  done  it  less  easily, 
but  for  the  occasion  Holmes  did  it  inimitably  well. 

If,  however,  we  look  at  Holmes'  total  poetic  work, 
we  shall  probably  conclude  that  his  final  place  among 
our  poets  is  likely  to  rest  upon  a  very  few  poems. 
Light,  graceful,  humorous,  or  absurd,  he  is  distinctly 
a  minor  poet,  accepting  his  limitations,  and  apparently 
claiming  for  himself  no  higher  title.  Once,  in  The 
Chambered  Nautilus,  he  rises  into  the  larger,  nobler 
air;  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  has  elsewhere  reached 
an  equal  height.  But  it  is  not  given  to  all  poets  to 
be  in  the  "grand  manner,"  and  the  especial  place  and 
value  of  the  less  lofty  singers  should  not  be  slighted 
or  overlooked.  The  masters  of  the  slighter  forms  of 
society  verse, — of  the  lyric  of  wit,  fun,  or  fancy,— 
have  their  assured  place,  even  if  it  be  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  poetic  realm.  We  cannot  be  always  at  the 
highest  tension,  and,  as  Holmes  himself  says, 

"  A  page  of  Hood  may  do  a  fellow  good 
After  a  scolding  from  Carlyle  or  Kuskin." 

By  certain  poems — not  many,  indeed,  but  memo 
rable — Holmes  holds  an  assured  place  among  verse- 
writers  of  this  lighter  kind.  Dorothy  Q.,  which  has  a 
fineness  and  pathos  not  incomparable  to  that  of  Austin 
Dobson;  The  One- 1  lots  Shay,  La  Grisette,  The  Last 
Leaf, — such  verse  rightly  entitles  Holmes  to  be  ranked 
in  that  charming  company  to  which  Prior,  Hood, 
Praed,  and  Thackeray  belong. 


216     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

Holmes  was  nearly  fifty  before  he  made  any  im 
portant  contribution  to  prose.  When  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  was  started,  in  1857,  Lowell  assumed  its 

editorship  with  the  understanding  that  a 
pros™.68  se^  °^  articles  should  be  contributed  by 

Holmes.  Lowell's  foresight  was  amply 
justified.  The  arrangement  gave  us  The  Autocrat  of 
the  Breakfast- Table,  a  book  which  placed  Holmes 
among  our  most  brilliant  and  charming  writers  of 
prose.  By  a  guiding  instinct,  or  a  happy  accident, 
Boston's  famous  talker  had  here  hit  upon — or  perhaps 
we  may  rather  say  created — a  literary  form  which 
showed  his  mastery  in  his  own  domain.  The  book 
purports  to  be  the  record  of  the  table-talk  of  a 
Boston  boarding-house.  It  is  indeed  less  a  conver 
sation  than  a  monologue  in  a  dramatic  setting; 
variety,  humor,  and  human  interest  being  furnished 
by  the  casual  introduction  of  the  various  boarders, 
whose  remarks  or  questions  serve  to  bring  out  the 
Autocrat's  best  wit  and  wisdom.  Such  a  plan  allows 
the  author  the  widest  liberty;  we  have  at  once  a 
greater  ease  and  discursiveness  than  in  the  more 
formal  essay,  and  at  the  same  time  an  underlying  con 
nection  not  found  in  the  scattered  thoughts  or  medi 
tations  of  certain  great  classic  writers.  The  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast-  Table  was  followed  from  time  to  time 
by  other  works  of  the  same  general  character:  The 
Professor  at  the  Breakfast- Table  (1859),  The  Poet  at 
the  Breakfast- Table  (1873),  and  Over  the  Tea-Clips 
(1890).  The  series  is  full  of  Dr.  Holmes;  it  reveals 
his  alert,  restless  intellect,  darting  from  grave  to  gay, 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  217 

touching  and  adorning  all  with  liveliness  and  sym 
pathy. 

The  same  rambling  and  conversational  quality  which 
in  the  Breakfast-Table  Series  is  so  great  a  merit, 
detracts  from  the  entire  success  of  Dr.  Holmes'  novels, 
as  it  tends  to  interrupt  the  story  and  unduly  obtrudes 
the  personality  and  opinions  of  the  author.  His  three 
novels,  Elsie  Venncr  (I860),  The  Guardian  Angel 
(18G8),  and  A  Mortal  Antipathy  (1885),  contain  in 
teresting  presentations  of  character,  striking  situa 
tions,  and  an  abundance  of  shrewd  reflection,  but  they 
are  rather  the  curious  studies  of  the  physician  and 
thinker  than  masterpieces  of  story-telling.  Each  of 
them  is  a  minute  inquiry  into  the  effect  of  some  innate 
or  hereditary  influence  on  human  character  and 
action.  It  is  suggested  in  Elsie  Venner  that  in  some 
cases  a  purely  physical  condition  for  which  the  indi 
vidual  cannot  be  held  morally  responsible  may  be  the 
cause 'of  a  moral  defect,  and  the  two  remaining  stories 
turn  also  on  this  problem  of  moral  accountability.  It 
is  dangerous,  if  fascinating,  ground ;  it  takes  us  into 
that  debatable  region  where  body  and  spirit  touch  and 
interact,  and  where  we  are  led  to  ask  how  far  the 
thing  which  we  are  and  do  is  determined  by  the  forces 
without  or  the  personal  power  within.  The  fact  that 
this  subtle  question  should  have  attracted  Holmes  so 
strongly,  is  another  illustration  of  his  intensely  New 
England  cast  of  mind.  His  ancestors  had  approached 
the  problem  of  evil  tendencies  or  human  accountability 
as  theologians,  and  discovered  predestination  and  origi 
nal  sin.  The  same  deep  problems  fascinated  Holmes, 


218     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

but  he  approached  them  as  a  physician  and  a  scientist, 
in  the  reactionary  and  modern  spirit  of  his  time. 

Although  we  cannot  dwell  here  on  the  work  of  Dr. 
Holmes  in  medicine,  it  must  be  remembered  that  he 
gave  to  this  his  chosen  profession  a  great  part  of  his 
energy.  He  made  numerous  and  important  contri 
butions  to  medical  literature;  he  was  Professor  of 
Physiology  and  Anatomy  at  Dartmouth  College  for  two 
years,  and  held  the  same  chair  at  Harvard  for  thirty- 
five  years  (1847-1882).  It  is  enough  to  say  here  that 
even  into  his  medical  lectures  he  carried  the  genial, 
winning  grace  of  that  personality  which,  underlying 
all  his  varied  activities  and  successes,  gives  its  distinc 
tive  flavor  to  his  work. 

Emerson,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  and  Holmes  were  in 
heritors  of  generations  of  scholarship.  Europe  was 

J.  G.  open  and  familiar  to  them,  and  their  wide 
WMttier.  culture  gave  them  the  key  to  the  treasures 
of  her  literature  and  her  past.  In  certain  ways  JOHN 
GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  (1807-1892)  is  closely  asso 
ciated  with  this  group  of  poet-scholars,  but,  on  the 
whole,  he  stands  apart  from  it  by  his  origin,  his  educa 
tion,  and  the  prevailing  character  of  his  work.  As  has 
been  pointed  out,  Emerson,  and  the  great  writers  who 
surrounded  him  were,  for  the  most  part,  the  outcome 
of  Puritanism  as  then  transformed  and  liberalized  by 
the  power  of  new  ideas;  Whittier,  on  the  contrary, 
was  a  Quaker  and  sprung  from  Quaker  stock.  To  the 
close  of  his  life  the  "  Quaker  poet  "  held  fast  to  the 
tranquil  faith  in  which  he  had  been  reared,  and  the 
religious  spirit  of  many  of  his  poems  is  neither  that  of 


JOHN     GREENLEAF     WHITTIER 


LITERATURE  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  219 

Emerson  nor  of  those  Calvinistic  teachers  whose  iron 
creed  Emerson  had  cast  off.  By  religion,  by  inherit 
ance,  and  in  some  respects  by  temperament,  Whittier 
is  thus  outside  of  Puritanism,  that  most  dominant  in 
fluence  in  the  life  and  literature  of  New  England. 

A  further  point  of  separation  is  to  be  found  in  the 
character  of  Whittier's  early  life  and  surroundings. 
The  lives  of  his  great  New  England  contemporaries  in 
poetry  were  mainly  identified  with  cities.  They  knew 
and  loved  nature,  indeed,  yet  they  habitually  viewed 
life  from  the  midst  of  the  charmed  circles  of  culture 
in  Boston,  Cambridge,  or  Concord.  Whittier  was 
country-born  and  country-bred.  He  grew  up  a  sim 
ple  New  England  farmer's  boy,  taking  his  share  in 
the  beautiful,  homely  labors  of  the  barn-yard  and  the 
field.  Emerson  and  his  circle  were  college-bred;  they 
belonged  by  birth  to  the  "  academic  aristocracy"  of 
New  England.  The  meagerness  of  Whittier's  early 
training  at  the  country-school  near  by  was  supple 
mented  by  a  year  of  hardly-earned  instruction  at  a 
neighboring  academy.  His  ancestors  were  a  simple, 
upright,  hard-working  people,  his  boyish  surroundings 
devoid  of  luxury  or  of  any  especial  incentives  to  cul 
ture.  Whittier  is  thus,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  the  poet 
of  the  people  and  of  nature.  He  comes  to  us  out  of 
the  very  heart  of  rural  New  England.  To  the  farmer, 
nature  is  not  merely  an  occasional  source  of  pleasure; 
he  lives  in  daily  dependence  upon  her,  brought  by  his 
calling  into  direct  and  wholesome  dealings  with  her 
processes  of  growth.  Born  to  farm  labors,  the  know 
ledge  of  nature  was  Whittier's  birthright,  and  not  even 


220     INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Lowell  with  all  his  subtler  sympathies  can  bring  us 
so  close  to  the  New  England  landscape,  or  make  the 
life  of  the  New  England  farmer  so  idyllic  and  so  real. 
The  Whittier  homestead,  pictured  for  us  by  the 
poet  in  Snow-Bound,  stood  in  the  valley  of  the 
Merrimack  River,  in  the  northern  part  'of  Essex 
County,  Massachusetts.  In  this  plain  New  England 
farmhouse  the  family  had  dwelt  for  generations. 
The  situation  is  remote  and  solitary;  the  hills  shut  it 
in,  their  wooded  slopes  "  ridging  "  the  west.  Here 
Whittier  was  born,  December  17,  1807.  The  poet  in 
him  woke  early,  and  as  a  boy  he  found  help  and  in 
spiration  in  the  songs  of  that  greater  genius  of  the 
farm,  Robert  Burns.  The  Scotch  ploughman  spoke 
to  the  heart  of  the  New  England  farmer's  boy,  and,  as 
Whittier  declared,  he  saw  the  world  with  new  eyes: 

"  New  light  on  home-seen  Nature  beamed, 

New  glory  over  Woman  ; 
And  daily  life  and  duty  seemed 
No  longer  poor  and  common.* 

When  he  was  about  twenty,  through  the  influence 
and  encouragement  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  then 
at  the  beginning  of  his  career,  Whittier  left  the  farm 
to  make  journalism  his  profession.  For  the  next 
twelve  years  (1828-1840)  his  duties  called  him  to 
various  places:  for  a  time  he  was  in  Boston,  then  in 
Haverhill,  then  in  Hartford,  and  later  in  Philadel 
phia.  His  early  association  with  Garrison,  his  love  of 
freedom,  and  his  deep  hatred  of  cruelty  and  oppres- 

*  Wnittier's  Poems  :  "Burns." 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  221 

sion,  all  combined  to  make  him  the  indomitable 
opponent  of  slavery,  and  he  stands  side  by  side  with 
Lowell  as  the  poet  champion  of  the  cause  of  the 
Abolitionists.  With  his  gentle,  loving,  and  sensitive 
nature,  Whittier,  like  Lowell,  had  that  power  of  just 
wrath  possible  to  men  of  a  pure  and  lofty  type. 
Mingled  with  that  peculiar  twilight  serenity  so  char 
acteristic  of  those  of  the  Quaker  sect,  there  was  a 
stern  zeal  for  righteousness  like  that  in  the  great 
Hebrew  prophets,  a  martial  dash  and  vigor  that  passes 
into  the  swinging  beat  of  many  of  his  best  ballads, 
and  sets  our  blood  astir.  Thoroughly  in  earnest, 
Whittier  gave  not  only  his  songs  but  himself  to  the 
antislavery  cause.  He  was  one  of  the  secretaries  of 
the  antislavery  convention;  he  edited  The  Pennsyl- 
vania  Freeman,  faced  hostile  audiences,  confronted 
riotous  and  abusive  mobs,  in  the  strength  of  his  con 
viction  and  his  cause. 

Leaving  Philadelphia  in  1840,  Whittier  sold  the 
homestead  on  the  Merrimack,  and  settled  at  Ames- 
bury,  a  small  town  in  its  vicinity.  Here  and  in  his 
beautiful  country-place  near  Danvers,  not  far  from 
Boston,  he  spent  the  long  remainder  of  his  life. 
Thus,  except  for  the  brief  interval  of  his  journalistic 
work,  made  stirring  and  eventful  towards  its  close  by 
his  gallant  battle  for  the  slave,  Whittier's  life  was 
passed  in  those  country  surroundings  which  -  give  to 
his  verse  so  much  of  its  freshness  and  charm. 

The  course  of  Whittier's  life  is  accurately  reflected 
in  his  poetry.  Burns  had  led  him  to  see  a  hitherto 
unsuspected  beauty  in  familiar  surroundings.  He 


222     INTRODUCTION"    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

sought  as  a  youth  to  convert  the  Indian  into  a  hero  of 
romance,  and  to  claim  for  poetry  the  scenes  and 
legends  of  New  England.  At  first  the  result  was  but 
very  partially  successful,  and  he  himself  declared  in 
after  years  that  Mogg  Megoiie,  the  hero  of  one  of  these 
early  efforts,  suggested  "  the  idea  of  a  big  Indian  in 
his  war-paint  strutting  about  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
plaid."  *  Another  Indian  poem,  The  Bridal  of  Pen- 
nacook,  is  less  of  a  failure,  but  hardly  a  success.  If 
Whittier  cannot  compete  with  Longfellow  in  his  treat 
ment  of  Indian  legend,  he  has  found  in  the  records  of 
the  early  settlers  of  New  England  materials  for  ballads 
which  at  least  compare  favorably  with  Longfellow's 
best  work  on  similar  themes.  Among  such  poems  are 
the  splendid  ballad  Cassandra  South  wick,  and  the 
story  of  the  days  of  witchcraft,  Mabel  Martin. 
Spirited  and  admirable  as  are  these  studies  of  the 
past,  Whittier  is  above  all  the  painter  and  revealer  of 
his  own  time.  He  stands  out  pre-eminently  as  the 
poet  of  the  antislavery  contest,  the  poot  of  rural  New 
England,  and  the  poet  of  a  tranquil  and  comprehen 
sive  religious  faith.  We  will  speak  briefly  of  these 
three  elements  in  his  work. 

Regarded  strictly  as  poetry,  many  of  Whittier's  anti- 
slavery  lyrics  fall  below  the  level  of  his  best  verse. 
They  show  earnestness,  sincerity,  and  vigor;  but 
Whittiar  was  slow  in  mastering  the  technical  require 
ments  of  his  art,  and  these  poems,  often  written  for 
an  occasion  and  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  were  in- 

*  Collected  Works,  ed.  1888,  vol.  ii.  p.  325. 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  223 

tended  to  serve  a  practical  and  immediate  purpose. 
Fame  could  wait;  his  cause  could  not,  and  it  was  more 
than  fame.  So  Whittier  simply  used  verse  as  another 
weapon  in  the  fight  he  was  waging;  in  his  antislavery 
verses,  widely  read  through  the  newspapers,  he  spoke 
directly  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  he  did  his 
work.  Nevertheless  the  effectiveness  of  these  poems 
in  a  great  national  crisis  is  one  thing,  and  their  per 
manent  value  in  poetry  another;  and  from  the  latter 
aspect  we  often  find  in  them  a  genuine  but  too 
declamatory  passion,  rather  than  an  enduring  poetic 
form.  They  have,  moreover,  that  diffuseness  which 
is  admittedly  one  of  Whittier's  most  serious  artistic 
shortcomings.  Yet  once,  at  least,  in  these  poems 
Whitbier  reached  a  height  to  which  the  best  of  our 
poets  seldom  attain.  Among  the  mass  of  prose  and 
poetry  produced  by  our  Civil  War,  the  Laus  Deo,  a 
song  of  praise  and  triumph  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
must  rank  with  the  few  really  great  and  lasting  con 
tributions  to  literature.  Through  all  its  exultant 
lyrical  movement  we  feel  the  throb  of  the  great  bells ; 
it  is  alike  a  song  of  victory  and  of  thanksgiving,  and 
like  that  ancient  chant  of  Miriam,  it  is  a  perfect  union 
of  those  two  great  emotions,  patriotism  and  praise. 

"It  is  done  ! 

Clang  of  bell,  and  war  of  gun, 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 

How  the  belfries  rock  and  reel ! 

How  the  great  guns,  peal  on  peal  1 
Fling  the  joy  from  town  to  town." 


224     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

The  antislavery  poems  were  an  episode,  if  a 
dramatic  and  important  one,  in  "Whittier's  career;  his 
poems  which  record  the  New  England  farm-life  came 
out  of  a  lifetime  of  association  and  an  intimate 
understanding  and  sympathy.  Whittier's  intense 
feeling  for  New  England  may  be  compared  to  that 
filial  devotion  to  country  which  permeates  the  work 
of  Scott  or  Burns.  Other  countries  may  be  fair,  but 
the  poet  with  this  deep  feeling  for  the  land  of  his 
birth  knows  that  one  only  can  satisfy  his  needs.  We 
know  that  Whittier  spoke  in  all  sincerity  when  he 
wrote  of  his  bleak  New  England : 

"Home  of  my  heart  !  to  me  more  fair 

Than  gay  Versailles  or  Windsor's  halls, 
The  painted,  shingly  town-house  where 
The  freeman's  vote  for  Freedom  falls."* 

It  is  this  intimate  knowledge  and  lifelong  love  of 
New  England  that  has  made  Whittier  in  an  especial 
sense  her  poet.  He  sets  us  down  in  the  midst  of  her, 
and  we  see,  as  for  the  first  time,  that  life  of  the  New 
Englander  glorified  and  yet  startliugly  real.  Thus 
in  the  Barefoot  Boy  he  shows  us  the  careless  ranger 
of  the  fields,  with  his  sunburned  face  and  torn  hat- 
brim  ;  there  is  the  country  schoolhouse,  the  sumach 
and  blackberry  vines  about  it,  and  within  the  warped 
floor  and  battered  seats.  Then  in  Telling  the  Bees, 
one  of  the  most  perfect  and  suggestive  of  the  shorter 
poems,  there  is  the  quaint  local  custom,  touched  by  a 

*  The  Last  Walk  in  Autumn,  xxi. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  225 

universal   pathos  against   the  homely  bat  beautiful 
background  of  the  farm-house. 

"  This  is  the  house,  with  the  gate  red-barred 

And  the  poplars  tall  ; 

And  the  barn's  brown  length,  and  the  cattle-yard, 
And  the  white  horns  tossing  above  the  wall." 

To  describe  such  scenes  both  truthfully  and  poet 
ically  requires  power  of  110  mean  order,  and  to  this 
power  Whittier  added  sympathy  with  the  lives  of 
those  who  toil.  In  the  series  entitled  The  Songs  of 
Labor  we  are  made  to  feel  the  dignity  and  nobility 
of  man's  toil,  when  "  the  working  hand  makes  strong 
the  working  brain."  The  lives  of  the  fishermen  of 
the  stormy  northern  coasts,  of  the  lumbermen  in  the 
wintry  solitude  of  a  Maine  forest,  are  entered  into 
with  a  democratic  spirit  meant  to  show  "  the  unsung 
beauty  "  underlying  "  common  things."  The  most 
perfect  expression  of  all  this  side  of  Whittier's  genius 
is  probably  to  be  found  in  Snow-Bound.  The  poem 
comes  to  us  with  the  directness  of  a  personal  experi 
ence;  it  is  an  actual  part  of  life,  and  thus  built  on 
solid  and  enduring  foundations.  Only  one  household 
is  brought  before  us,  but  we  feel  that  in  portraying 
this,  one  side  of  our  American  life  has  been  given  a 
lasting  interpretation  in  literature.  The  genius  of 
Whittier  has  lifted  the  New  England  farmhouse  in 
winter  into  the  great  world  of  poetry,  as  the  genius 
of  Burns  did  the  humble,  godly  home  of  the  Scotch 
cotter,  or  that  of  Cowper  the  domestic  comforts  of  an 
English  fireside.  We  share  in  the  "  nightly  chores," 


226     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

the  morning  task  of  cutting  a  path  through  the  snow 
drift;  we  see  the  "  prisoned  brutes  "  in  the  barn;  at 
night  we  pass  indoors  and  join  the  little  group  about 
the  blazing  fireplace.  All  is  real  and  true;  every 
detail  is  brought  before  us  with  a  loving  sureness  of 
touch  which  reminds  us  of  the  painstaking  minuteness 
of  some  old  Dutch  painter.  Without  stretches  the 
Xew  England  landscape,  bleak,  snow-covered,  soli 
tary;  the  wind  sweeps  over  it  and  we  hear  the  sleet 
with  its  "  ghostly  finger-tips  "  tap  the  pane.  It  is 
a  veritable  idyll;  and  it  is  as  distinctly  ours  as  an 
idyll  of  Theocritus  is  Greek,  or  as  Tennyson's  idyllic 
poems  of  English  country  life  are  English.  It  is  at 
once  true  in  every  familiar  incident  and  particular, 
and  yet  filled  with  that  grace  and  meaning  which  the 
true  poet  teaches  us  to  discern  in  familiar  things. 

Finally,  we  find  in  "\Vhittier  a  deep  and  tranquil 
religious  feeling,  finding  definite  expression  in  one 
important  group  of  poems,  but  passing  beyond  this, 
and  pervading  more  or  less  fully  the  whole  body  of  his 
work.  This  religious  spirit  is  at  the  farthest  remove 
from  the  gloom  and  severity  of  the  Calvinistic  creeds; 
it  is  a  spirit  of  peace,  light,  love,  and  childlike  trust. 
Xot  unmindful  of  the  questionings  of  his  age,  this 
confidence  suffices  the  poet  until  the  end. 

"  I  have  no  answer  for  myself  or  thee, 
Save  that  I  learned  beside  my  mother's  knee  ; 
'  All  is  of  God  that  is  and  is  to  be ; 
And  God  is  good.'  "  * 

*  Whittier's  Poems.     "  Trust." 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  227 

It  is  this  spirit  of  trust  that  illuminates  with  a  serene 
radiance  that  most  finished  and  beautiful  poem,  The 
Eternal  Goodness.  On  the  purely  artistic  side  Whit- 
tier  had  many  technical  shortcomings.  His  instinct 
for  form  was  not  always  fine  enough  to  balance  the 
deficiencies  of  his  early  training,  and  the  preacher 
and  reformer  in  him  sometimes  injured  the  poet. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  gained  as  he  grew  older  a 
greater  mastery  of  his  art,  and  he  has  reached  at  times 
an  extraordinary  height  of  poetic  excellence.  In  all 
cases  we  feel  his  sterling  manhood,  his  singleness  of 
purpose;  and  we  should  realize  that  after  all  deduc 
tions  he  has  a  genuineness,  an  elevation,  and  an  origi 
nal  force  which  win  for  him  a  high  place  among  our 
poets. 

So  far  we  have  dwelt  almost  exclusively  on  the 
work  produced  by  the  great  writers  of  New  England, 
within  the  limits  of  poetry,  romance,  and 
literary  criticism.  But  even  a  brief  survey  Historians 
of  the  Golden  Age  of  our  literature  would 
be  incomplete  without  some  mention  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  fields  of  learning  and  schol 
arly  research.  In  reality  this  work  is  of  an  exceed 
ingly  high  order.  In  poetry  and  even  in  fiction, 
branches  of  literature  which  demand  the  highest 
creative  or  imaginative  power,  the  work  of  the 
American  writers,  creditable  as  it  is,  is  as  a  whole 
distinctly  inferior  to  that  of  their  English  contem 
poraries.  It  is  childish  to  allow  our  judgment  in 
this  matter  to  be  warped  by  any  fancied  loyalty  to 
country,  for  the  truest  patriotism  lies  in  seeing  clearly 


228     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

our  national  shortcomings  and  striving  to  amend  them, 
not  in  blindly  insisting  that  they  do  not  exist.  In 
the  field  of  historical  writing,  however,  no  such  admis 
sion  is  required,  for  the  works  of  our  best  American 
historians  are  fairly  entitled  to  be  ranked  with  those 
of  the  greatest  English  historians  of  the  time.  The 
American  mind  is  quick  and  versatile,  but  it  has 
shown  a  truly  surprising  willingness  to  labor  slowly 
and  diligently  in  original  investigation.* 

In  addition  to  thorough  knowledge  and  accuracy, 
the  great  Xew  England  historians  have  not  been 
wanting  in  a  fine  feeling  for  style  and  in  a  true 

literary  instinct.  One  of  these,  GEORGE 
BanS.  BANCROFT  (1800-1891),  had,  indeed,  the 

faculty  of  the  historical  investigator  in 
larger  measure  than  the  faculty  of  the  literary  artist; 
yet  his  History  of  the  United  States,  a  monument  of 
careful  industry,  remains,  with  all  deductions,  an  in 
valuable  and  scholarly  work.  This  history,  in  twelve 
volumes,  the  first  of  which  appeared  in  1834,  covers 
the  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  periods,  treating  them 
with  such  fullness  and  exactness  that  it  has  taken  its 
place  as  a  standard  authority. 

WILLIAM  HICKLING  PRESCOTT  (179G-1859),  whose 
earliest  work,  a  History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and 

Isabella,  was  published  three  years  after 
Prescott.     the  first  volume  of  Bancroft's  history,  pos. 

sessed  in  a  wonderful  degree  not  only  the 

*Tliis  has  been  so  marked  of  late  years  as  to  attract  the 
notice  of  one  of  the  in<;st  acute  of  our  English  critics.  Bryce's 
American  Commonwealth,  vol.  ii.  p.  631. 


LITERATURE   IN    KE\V   ENGLAND  229 

patient  spirit  necessary  for  careful  and  painstaking 
research,  but  also  the  imaginative  power  to  present 
the  dry  facts  thus  discovered  in  a  picturesque  and 
delightful  narrative.  This  was  the  more  remarkable 
when  we  consider  under  what  disadvantages  he 
labored.  When  quite  a  young  man  an  accident  made 
him  almost  blind.  After  travelling  abroad  for  two 
years,  vainly  seeking  relief,  he  returned  to  America, 
and  with  the  help  of  a  secretary  bravely  began  the 
work  upon  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  For  the  next 
twelve  years  he  was  occupied  in  writing  the  History 
of  the  Reiyu  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  This  was 
followed  (1843)  by  a  History  of  the  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  and  four  years  later  by  the  Conquest  of  Peru. 
After  this  he  wrote  three  volumes  of  his  History  of 
the  Reign  of  Philip  II.,  but  he  did  not  live  to  com 
plete  it. 

Frescott,  like  Irving,  had  come  under  the  fascina 
tion  of  Spain  in  the  days  of  her  greatest  power,  when 
she  was  laying  the  foundations  of  her  empire  beyond 
the  seas.  His  selection  of  the  Spanish  conquest  in 
South  America  as  a  subject  was  a  particularly  happy 
one;  for,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  this  great  era 
of  discovery  possesses  an  especial  interest  for  Ameri 
cans,  it  was  a  theme  which  afforded  a  fine  opportunity 
for  graphic  description.  Few  novels  move  us  more 
deeply  than  Prescott's  vivid  story  of  the  perilous 
escapes,  the  trials,  the  hardships,  and  the  daring  of 
this  band  of  romantic  adventurers,  discovering  and 
conquering  a  new  world,  gorgeous  with  the  rich  and 
brilliant  coloring  of  tropical  life,  and  filled  with  a 


230     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

fabulous  wealth  and  treasure  long  dreamed  of  by  Old- 
AVorld  explorers.  Prescott's  work  as  a  whole  main 
tains  a  high  order  of  excellence,  but  in  this  fas 
cinating  book  the  nature  of  his  subject  has  enabled 
him  to  give  ns  a  peculiarly  poetic  and  rounded  pro 
duction.  The  daring  exploits  of  Cortes  and  his  little 
band ;  the  extraordinary  richness  of  the  kingdom  they 
subdued,  and  the  tragic  fate  of  its  unhappy  ruler, — all 
these  combine  to  give  the  story  the  unity  and  poetic 
quality  of  a  great  epic.  Although,  in  the  light  of 
recent  knowledge,  critics  have  questioned  some  of 
Prescott's  statements,  his  histories  are,  in  nearly  all 
essential  points,  to  be  relied  upon  as  correct,  and  we 
may  still  take  pleasure  in  the  thought  that,  in  the 
Avonderf  ul  pictures  he  has  given  us,  truth  has  not  been 
sacrificed  to  effect. 

Another  great  historian  of  this  Xew  England  group, 
JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY  (1814-1877),  after  graduat 
ing  at  Harvard  studied  for  several  years 

,,Jv.L  at    the    German    universities.       He    then 

Motley. 

returned  to  Boston  and  chose  law  as  his 

profession.  Law  was  soon  abandoned  for  literature, 
and  in  1839  he  published  an  unsuccessful  novel, 
Morton"1  &  Hope.  In  his  next  venture  he  made  use  of 
some  of  the  historical  materials  he  had  begun  to 
collect;  but  this  second  novel,  Merry  Mount,  while 
not  devoid  of  merit,  was  like  the  first  a  literary  failure, 
and  Motley  came  to  the  conclusion  that  his  vocation 
was  that  of  the  historian.  Having  made  this  decision, 
he  did  not  hesitate  in  the  selection  of  his  subject. 
His  view  of  history  was  essentially  that  of  one  who 


LITEIIATUKE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  231 

believed  in  free  institutions  and  in  popular  rights. 
In  looking  back  over  the  past  his  sympathy  and 
interest  went  out  to  the  great  mass  of  people  rather 
than  to  the  little  group  of  kings  and  nobles.  For  one 
of  his  temperament  and  convictions,  the  disregard  of 
human  rights,  the  cruelty  and  oppression  of  a  tyran 
nical  ruler,  or  a  popular  uprising  in  the  cause  of  free 
dom  possessed  a  peculiar  attraction  and  an  underlying 
significance.  The  struggle  of  the  race  towards  liberty 
impressed  him  as  a  leading  element  in  modern  history, 
and  he  aspired  to  become,  in  part,  its  historian.  As 
such  he  may  be  regarded  as  an  exponent,  from  the 
historian's  point  of  view,  of  those  principles  which  are 
the  foundation  of  our  Republic. 

The  stubborn  and  successful  struggle  of  the  Dutch 
against  the  bigotry  and  tyranny  of  Philip  II.  was 
interesting  in  Motley's  eyes,  not  merely  because  of  its 
heroic  or  dramatic  incident,  nor  wholly  because  it 
was  a  fight  for  liberty,  but  because,  as  he  saw  it,  it 
was  a  step  towards  the  wider  establishment  of  human 
rights;  an  episode  in  the  drama  of  progress,  the  full 
meaning  of  which  had  not  been  fully  perceived.  As 
he  writes  in  his  Preface:  "To  all  who  speak  the 
English  language  the  history  of  the  great  agony 
through  which  the  Republic  of  Holland  was  ushered 
into  life  must  have  a  peculiar  interest,  for  it  is  a  por 
tion  of  the  records  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race — essen 
tially  the  same,  whether  in  Friesland,  England,  or 
Massachusetts."  And  again:  "'To  maintain,'  not 
to  overthrow,  was  the  device  of  the  Washington  of 


233     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

the  sixteenth  century,  as  it  was  the  aim  of  our  own 
hero  and  his  great  contemporaries."  * 

Motley  planned  a  series  of  histories  which,  under  the 
general  title  of  The  Eighty  Years'  War  for  Liberty, 
was  to  include  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  The 
United  Netherlands,  and  The  Thirty  Years'1  War.  He 
did  not  live,  however,  to  fully  carry  out  his  design. 
He  soon  realized  that  it  was  impossible  to  carry  out  his 
tremendous  undertaking  in  this  country,  and  in  1851 
he  went  abroad  with  his  family  in  order  to  investigate 
original  manuscripts,  and  to  visit  the  chief  places 
connected  with  his  work.  The  untiring  labor  which 
he  expended  for  many  years  in  the  most  minute  and 
painstaking  researches  shows  the  earnest  devotion  of  a 
great  scholar.  He  not  only  read  in  different  languages 
the  greater  part  of  the  authorities  which  the  best 
libraries  had  collected  on  his  subject,  but  obtained 
permission  from  various  governments  to  look  into  their 
private  archives  and  state  papers.  He  spent  months 
over  illegible,  unpublished  correspondences,  and  at  one 
time  he  employed  one  secretary  in  London  and  kept 
two  more  busy  at  the  Hague,  while  he  himself  was  at 
work  in  Brussels.  Many  would  have  been  appalled  at 
the  overwhelming  mass  of  material  thus  brought  to 
light,  but  Motley  showed  his  judgment  and  critical 
faculty  in  the  wise  selection  of  what  he  most  needed. 
Throughout  all  his  work  we  find  a  broad  grasp  of  the 
most  important  features  of  the  subject,  and  the  relation 
between  the  social  and  political  conditions  of  a  nation 
and  its  life  at  a  given  period  is  clearly  brought  out. 

*  Preface  to  Tlie  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 


LITERATURE   IN    NEW    ENGLAND  233 

Motley's  stylo,  which  suggests  that  of  Carlyle,  is 
notably  vigorous  and  brilliant,  and  certain  passages 
are  filled  with  sarcastic  humor.  Prescott  excelled  in 
the  orderly  movement  of  his  narrative,  but  Motley 
possessed  a  dramatic  instinct  which  enabled  him  to 
seize  upon  some  revealing  situation  and  bring  it 
vividly  before  us.  This  same  dramatic  power  shows 
itself  also  in  his  delineation  of  character;  certain 
figures  stand  out  with  life-like  distinctness,  and  we  can 
almost  imagine  ourselves  alongside  of  those  men  and 
women  of  the  past  in  whose  company,  Motley  himself 
wrote,  he  was  spending  all  his  days.*  When  The  Rise 
of  the  Dutch  Republic  was  published  in  1856,  it  was 
enthusiastically  received,  not  only  in  his  own  country, 
but  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  where  it  was 
translated  into  three  languages.  The  United  Nether 
lands  still  further  increased  the  reputation  which 
Motley  had  gained  by  his  first  history,  and  it  is  indeed 
to  be  regretted  that  he  should  not  have  lived  to  com 
plete  the  last  of  the  great  series  he  had  planned. 

If   we  have   found   that   for  various   reasons    the 
works  of  these  three  great  historians  are  of  especial 
interest  to  Americans,  the  subject  chosen 
by  FRANCIS  PARKMAN  (1823-1893),  the    parkman. 
last  historian  of  this  group,  is  no  less  de 
serving  of  their  earnest  attention;  and  the  successful 
manner  in  which  he  has  treated  it  has  placed  him  in 
the  front  rank  of  our  prose  writers.     Park  man  seems 
to  have  definitely  decided  upon  his  life-work  while  still 
a  student,  for  he  determined  then  to  devote  himself 

*  Holmes 's  Memoir  of  Motley,  p.  69. 


234     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

to  the  writing  of  history.  Like  Motley,  he  planned  a 
great  series  which  was  to  he  united  by  one  central 
idea.  In  Turkman's  case  this  theme  was  the  conflict 
between  England  and  France  for  the  possession  of  the 
New  World.  He  realized  how  much  depended  upon 
the  result  of  this  momentous  struggle;  that  the  whole 
character  of  America's  civilization  was  at  stake  at  this 
critical  period  of  her  career.  Filled  with  the  en 
thusiasm,  of  a  great  purpose,  Parkman  determined  not 
only  to  make  himself  familiar  with  state  papers  and 
published  authorities,  but  to  live  for  a  time  among 
the  Indians  and  make  a  study  from  life  of  their  char 
acter  and  savage  customs.  In  1846  he  went  out  west 
to  the  Black  Hills  of  Dakota,  and,  joining  a  tribe  of 
Sioux,  suffered  the  hardships  and  privations  of  a  wild 
life,  for  which  he  was  physically  unfitted.*  He 
returned  with  invaluable  material  and  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  Indian  which  was  of  immense  service 
to  him  in  his  work ;  but  his  health  had  become  seri 
ously  impaired,  and  besides  this  drawback  he  had,  like 
Prescott,  to  contend  with  partial  blindness.  When 
the  difficulties  under  which  these  two  men  labored  are 
taken  into  account  we  cannot  but  be  impressed  with 
their  wonderful  courage  and  perseverance,  and  look 
with  increased  admiration  on  their  masterly  produc 
tions.  Parkman  was  a  conscientious  workman,  and 
his  style,  while  perhaps  a  trifle  highly  colored  and 
ornate,  is  picturesque  and  full  of  descriptive  power. 
The  following  titles  of  his  principal  works  in  their 

*  In  The  Oregon  Trail  (1847)  we  find  thrilling  accounts  of 
these  Western  adventures. 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW    ENGLAND  235 

historical  sequence  will  indicate  more  definitely  the 
scope  of  his  undertaking:  Pioneers  of  France  in  the 
New  World;  The  Jesuits  in  North  America;  La  Salic, 
or  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West;  The  Old  Regime 
in  Canada;  Count  Front  enac,  or  New  France  under 
Louis  XIV.;  A  Half -Century  of  Conflict;  Mont  calm 
and  Wolfe;  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  and  the  Indian 
War  after  the  Conquest  of  Canada. 

The  later  history  of  our  country  seems  often  lacking 
in  romance ;  but  the  period  of  which  Parkman  treats 
is  touched  with  the  glamour  of  chivalry,  which  stands 
out  in  sharp  contrast  against  the  broad  background  of 
the  wilderness  and  the  wild  passions  of  aboriginal  life. 

The  kindred  arts  of  oratory  and  literature  stand  in 
a  somewhat  peculiar  relation.  The  power  of  the 

orator  and  the  power  of  the  writer  are 

The 
similar  but  distinct.     The  great  speaker,    orators. 

holding  his  hearers,  perhaps,  by  some 
quality  of  voice  or  some  indefinable  compulsion  of 
manner,  may  say  nothing  which  will  stand  the  test  of 
being  read  as  literature;  the  great  writer,  on  the  other 
hand,  able  to  stir  the  hearts  of  thousands  by  his 
printed  words,  if  brought  face  to  face  with  an 
audience  may  be  incapable  of  holding  the  attention 
of  a  single  hearer.  But  while  the  arts  of  oratory  and 
of  literary  composition  are  thus  distinct,  many  great 
orations  outlast  the  occasion  which  produced  them, 
and,  even  though  no  longer  enhanced  by  the  personal 
spell  of  the  speaker,  possess,  independently  of  it,  a 
durable  quality  which  places  them  among  the  master 
pieces  of  literature. 


236     INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

During  her  years  of  intellectual  leadership  New 
England  led  the  country  in  oratory  also,  and  the 
work  of  her  succession  of  great  orators  belongs,  at 
least  in  part,  to  literature.  We  have  said  that  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  and  during  the  early  days 
of  the  Eepublic  the  supremacy  in  oratory  lay  with 
the  South.  But  as  the  present  century  advanced 
and  the  country  passed  into  the  shadow  of  those 
anxious  years  when  slavery  threatened  the  very  exist 
ence  of  the  Union,  it  was  New  England  that  gave 
America,  in  DANIEL  WEBSTER  (1 782-1852),  her  great 
est  orator.  It  was  New  England  also  that  gave  us 
Edward  Everett  (1794-1865),  the  master  of  a  finished 
and  scholarly  eloquence;  Wendell  Phillips  (1811- 
1884),  and  Charles  Sumner  (1811-1874),  the  orators 

of  the  Abolitionists.  It  only  increases  oar 
Webster.  admiration  for  the  part  that  New  England 

oratory  played  at  this  critical  stage  of  our 
national  history,  to  remember  that  Webster  had 
formidable  antagonists  in  John  C.  Calhoun  and  other 
orators  of  the  South.  Through  Webster,  New  Eng 
land  forced  home  to  the  conscience  of  the  nation  the 
conviction  that  at  all  sacrifices  the  Union  must  be 
preserved.  This  conviction  was  the  central  note  of 
Webster's  career.  He  did  not  exaggerate  when  he 
said  in  the  most  celebrated  of  his  political  speeches, 
the  Reply  to  Haijne :  "I  profess,  sir,  in  my  career 
hitherto,  to  have  kept  steadily  in  view  the  prosperity 
of  the  whole  country  and  the  preservation  of  our 
Federal  Union.  It  is  to  that  Union  we  owe  our 
safety  at  home  and  our  consideration  and  dignity 


LITERATURE   IN    NE\V   ENGLAND  237 

abroad.  It  is  to  that  Union  that  we  are  chiefly 
indebted  for  whatever  makes  us  most  proud  of  our 
country."  The  effect  of  such  words  went  far  beyond 
the  walls  of  the  Senate;  they  even  went  beyond  the 
generation  to  which  Webster  belonged.  Such  famous 
passages,  included  in  countless  schoolbooks,  read  and 
declaimed  throughout  the  country  by  thousands  of 
schoolboys,  had  an  inestimable  influence  in  moulding 
the  opinions  and  determining  the  future  actions  of 
those  that  came  after, — those  whose  part  it  was  to 
maintain  the  Union  when  imperilled  by  the  Civil  War. 
Beginning  life  as  a  farmer's  boy  in  New  Hampshire, 
Webster's  tremendous  personal  and  intellectual  force, 
joined  to  his  phenomenal  abilities  as  an  orator,  pushed 
him  rapidly  to  the  front.  For  thirty  years  he  "  stood 
at  the  head  of  the  bar  and  of  the  Senate,  the  first 
lawyer  and  the  first  statesman  of  the  United  States. "  * 
He  has  been  dead  for  nearly  half  a  century,  yet  the 
personal  power  that  was  a  part  of  the  man  has  not 
ceased  to  impress  us.  Even  Carlyle,  the  devout  ad 
mirer  of  sheer  strength  in  a  man,  felt  this  nameless 
force  in  Webster,  and,  in  spite  of  a  predisposition 
against  anything  American,  has  left  his  tribute  to  him 
on  record.  "  As  a  logic  fencer,  advocate,  or  par 
liamentary  Hercules,"  he  writes,  "  one  would  incline 
to  back  him  at  first  sight  against  all  the  extant  world. " 
And  after  describing  the  "  amorphous  crag-like  face," 
and  the  "  black  eyes  under  those  precipices  of  eye 
brows,"  he  concludes:  "  I  have  not  traced  as  much  of 

*  Lodge's    Life  of  Webster.      American   Statesmen   Series, 
p.  347. 


238     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

silent  Berserker-rage,  that  I  remember  of,  in  any  other 
man."  *  Webster's  speeches  are  more  than  triumphs 
of  oratory.  For  us  of  a  later  generation  the  eloquence 
of  his  great  southern  contemporary  Henry  Clay  (1777- 
1852),  like  that  of  Patrick  Henry,  is  little  more  than 
a  tradition;  but  the  masterpieces  of  Webster,  with 
their  strength  of  thought,  their  marvellous  keenness 
and  clearness  of  argument,  their  command  of  lan 
guage,  and  their  strains  of  a  sonorous  and  splendid 
rhetoric,  have  passed  into  our  literature.  Everett  had 
the  grace  of  a  more  perfect  culture,  Phillips  and 
George  William  Curtis  were  noble  and  ardent  speakers, 
but  we  can  still  feel  the  half-latent  and  almost  in 
comparable  personal  force  that  lay  behind  Webster's 
words;  the  strength  of  an  intellectual  giant,  so  abun 
dant  that  it  seems  never  fully  put  forth.  One  other 

and  yet  greater  man,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  Lincoln,  impresses  us  with  this  overwhelming  sense 

of  restrained  power.  We  feel  it  back  of 
his  compact  and  strongly-built  sentences,  which,  free 
from  all  affectations  of  rhetoric,  and  unimpeded  by  a 
superfluous  word,  go  straight  to  the  mark,  and  find 
their  place  in  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  nation. 
As  we  look  back  upon  the  work  of  these  great 
orators  of  Xew  England  as  a  whole,  from  Webster  to 
Sumner  and  Phillips,  as  we  recall  its  sterling  quality 
and  its  incalculable  effects  upon  our  national  history, 
we  see  that  it  was  by  no  means  the  least  important 

*  Carlyle-and-Emerson  Correspondence.  Edited  by  C.  E. 
Norton,  vol.  i.  p.  247.  Carlyle  also  refers  to  Webster  in  the 
same  volume,  p.  19. 


LITERATURE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND  239 

part  of  Xew  England's  service  to  the  country  at  large. 
To  all  that  the  Puritan  gave  us  we  add  this  also.  We 
appreciate  that  in  those  years  of  her  full  strength 
Xew  England  not  only  wrote  our  greatest  poetry,  our 
best  histories,  and  our  keenest  political  satire;  that 
she  not  only  charmed  us  with  her  humor,  and  led  the 
way  in  scholarship,  but  that,  beside  all  this,  she  gave 
us  men  who,  in  a  time  of  national  uncertainty  and 
peril,  could  lead  opinions  and  control  events  by  their 
genius  for  speech. 

GENERAL  SURVEY  OF  THE  LITERATURE  OP  THE  NEW 
ENGLAND  GROUP 

Before  finally  taking  leave  of  these  Xew  England 
writers,  and  passing  to  their  contemporaries  in  the 
Southern  and  Middle  States,  it  seems  desirable  to 
emphasize  some  of  the  thoughts  suggested  by  their 
work  as  a  whole. 

The  supremacy  of  Xew  England  as  a  literary  center 
extended  approximately  from  1830  to  1870  or  1880. 
It  is  true  that  some  of  the  greatest  writers  of  the 
group  entered  the  field  before  183G,  and  that  a  num 
ber  died  between  1882  and  1892 ;  it  is  true,  further 
more,  that  Holmes,  the  last  summoned,  lingered  until 
so  late  as  1895;  nevertheless  the  dates  above  given 
fairly  indicate  the  period  when  Xew  England  was  the 
center  of  our  best  literary  activity. 

In  the  second  place  we  observe  that  this  supremacy 
of  New  England  is  more  strictly  the  supremacy  of 
Massachusetts.  It  is  Massachusetts  which  produced 
almost  all  the  eminent  writers  of  the  period,  and  in 


240     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Massachusetts,  the  great  strongholds  of  the  literature, 
Boston,  Cambridge,  and  Concord,  lie  but  a  few  miles 
apart.  Longfellow,  the  son  of  Maine,  is  indeed  a 
conspicuous  exception ;  but  even  Longfellow  is  identi 
fied  with  Cambridge  rather  than  with  his  native  place. 
In  reflecting  upon  this  striking  fact  we  cannot  fail  to 
be  impressed  with  the  important  influence  that  the 
concentration  of  learning  and  culture  at  certain 
points  exercises  upon  literary  production.  The  suc 
cess  of  the  writer  is  largely  dependent  upon  favorable 
conditions;  ordinarily  he  need's  the  stimulus  that 
comes  from  association  with  men  of  kindred  tastes 
and  ability;  he  is  helped  by  a  nearness  to  the  great 
publishing-houses  and  magazines,  and  by  the  whole 
stir  and  movement  of  the  intellectual  and  social  life 
around  him. 

Boston  afforded  such  conditions;  Cambridge,  em 
phatically  a  university  town,  brought  together  a 
chosen  company  of  scholars;  while  Concord,  not  too 
distant  from  this  center  to  make  intercourse  difficult, 
gave  to  the  more  shy  and  solitary  spirits  the  charms 
of  natural  beauty  and  historic  association. 

In  the  third  place  we  notice  that  this  Xew  England 
literature  is  not  only  produced  almost  entirely  within 
the  limits  of  a  small  district  of  the  oldest  of  the  Xew 
England  Colonies,  but  that  it  is  largely  the  work  of 
those  who  represent  by  descent  and  inheritance  the 
early  Puritan  settlers.  The  leaders  in  letters,  Emer 
son,  Longfellow,  Hawthorne,  Holmes,  Lowell,  and 
many  more,  are  men  who  traced  their  descent  to  the 
early  days  of  the  Colony;  men  sprung  from  the  old 


LITERATURE    INT    NEW   ENGLAND  241 

Puritan  stock,  with  the  blood  of  generations  of 
scholars  in  their  veins.  "Whether  we  like  it  or  not, 
the  fact  remains  that  in  Xew  England  the  oldest  and 
so-called  "  best  "  families,  the  families  of  pure  English 
stock,  have  given  us  our  greatest  men  of  letters. 

And  we  may  mark  in  the  fourth  place  the  lofty  and 
stainless  lives  of  these  poets  and  scholars  of  Xew  Eng 
land.  There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  English 
literature  when  the  great  majority  of  writers  lived  in 
alternate  poverty  and  excess;  there  was  a  time  when 
the  gift  of  poetic  genius  was  associated  with  a  career 
of  reckless  dissipation  and  a  miserable  death;  but  in 
their  purity,  self-culture,  and  nobility  these  American 
men  of  letters  set  an  example  to  the  world.  They 
have  been  excelled  in  the  greatness  of  their  genius,  but 
no  group  of  writers  in  the  whole  history  of  literature 
has  surpassed  them  in  the  greatness  and  beauty  of 
their  lives.  We  Americans  may  think  with  just  pride 
of  Emerson's  lofty  serenity  of  spirit,  of  Lowell's  well- 
balanced  nature  and  sterling  manhood,  and  of  Long 
fellow,  the  gentle,  loving  scholar,  wearing  through  all 
the  allotted  term  of  years  "  the  white  flower  of  a 
blameless  life."  As  we  regard  the  great  writers  of 
Xew  England  on  this  personal  side,  we  see  that  the 
incorruptible  Puritan  stock  from  which  they  came  was 
calculated  to  produce  not  merely  men  of  powerful 
intellect,  but  men  of  marked  uprightness  and  nobility 
of  character. 

Xor  can  we  fail  to  notice  that  in  these  New  Eng 
land  writers  the  angularity  and  roughness  of  the 
Puritan  character  have  been  smoothed  and  softened  by 


242     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

the  grace  and  loveliness  of  foreign  civilizations.  The 
New  Englanders  of  the  earlier  time  were  provincials, 
fenced  off  not  onty  by  their  creed  but  by  their  condi 
tion  from  any  direct  knowledge  of  the  world  beyond 
the  seas.  But  in  the  generation  to  which  Emerson 
belonged  we  find  a  sudden  change,  the  effects  of  which 
are  immediate  and  far-reaching.  With  hardly  a 
single  exception,  the  great  New  Englanders  of  Emer 
son's  time  visited  Europe,  and  the  subtle  influence 
of  Europe  is  visibly  at  work  in  them,  moulding  their 
character,  and  coloring  their  thought,  their  writings, 
and  their  lives.  Something  has  been  said  as  to  the 
effect  of  this  direct  contact  with  Europe  on  the  writers 
of  the  Middle  States.  What  has  been  said  of  the  deep 
impress  left  on  Irving  by  foreign  travel  applies  with 
equal  or  perhaps  even  greater  force  to  the  men  of  New 
England.  The  old  days  of  Colonial  isolation  were 
over;  throughout  all  this  period  the  increase  in  wealth 
and  leisure,  the  growing  delight  in  foreign  scenes,  and 
the  astonishing  improvements  in  the  facilities  for 
ocean  travel  were  steadily  bringing  the  New  World 
into  closer  and  more  familiar  relations  with  the  Old. 
In  itself  this  was  enough  to  make  a  new  era  in  our 
literature.  No  wonder  that,  in  conjunction  with  many 
other  causes,  it  made  an  era  in  the  literature  of  New 
England.  Think  for  a  moment  of  some  of  its  direct 
results.  To  cite  only  a  few  examples,  it  gave  us 
Longfellow's  Outre- Mer  and  Hyperion,  as  well  as  a 
large  number  of  his  poems;  Lowell's  Cathedral, 
Emerson's  English  Traits,  Hawthorne's  Our  Old 
Home,  and  Holmes's  Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe. 


LITERATURE   IX   NEW    EXGLAXD  243 

111  fiction  it  furnished  inspiration  and  background  for 
The  Marble  Faun,  and  in  history  it  unlocked  to 
Motley  the  stores  of  fresh  material,  and  made  the 
scenes  of  his  narratives  real  and  familiar  to  his  mind. 

But  even  beyond  this  direct  effect  of  European 
travel  upon  our  literature  there  lies  its  pervading  and 
even  more  important  influence  on  the  lives  and 
thoughts  of  the  writers  themselves.  It  goes  deeper 
than  that  direct  effect  apparent  in  any  particular 
works.  Longfellow,  Lowell,  and  Hawthorne  were 
different  men  because  they  knew  Europe.  Its  life 
had  entered  into  theirs;  they  had  grown  by  it,  and  it 
naturally  became  a  part  of  the  influence  which  they 
exerted  on  our  cruder  social  and  intellectual  life. 

Finally,  we  must  remember  that  this  literature  of 
Xew  England  is,  above  all,  the  characteristic  expres 
sion  of  that  particular  locality  which  produced  it.  It 
is  neither  national  nor  foreign  in  its  essential  spirit; 
it  is  New  England.  Much  of  it  is  as  essentially  dis 
tinct  from  the  literature  of  the  other  sections  of  our 
country  as  the  literature  of  Scotland  is  from  that  of 
England;  and  whatever  it  may  have  received  from 
Europe,  it  remains  Puritan  at  heart.  To  understand 
it,  we  must  strive  to  enter  into  the  spirit  and  tradi 
tions  of  New  England,  realizing  at  the  same  time 
that  all  the  writings  produced  within  this  great  sec 
tion  form  but  a  chapter  in  the  many-sided  develop 
ment  of  American  literature  as  a  whole. 


244     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 


ADDITIONAL  STUDY  LISTS  AND  REFERENCES  FOR 
NEW  ENGLAND  WRITERS. 

Lowell.  1.  Poems.  "The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal" 
(compare  Tennyson's  treatment  of  the  same  subject  in  the 
" Holy  Grail"),  "Commemoration  Ode,"  "An  Incident  in 
a  Railroad  Car,"  "Stanzas  on  Freedom,"  "The  Present 
Crisis,"  "To  the  Dandelion,"  "In  the  Twilight,"  "The 
First  Snowfall,"  "The  Rose:  A  Ballad,"  "The  Washers 
of  the  Shroud,"  "The  Optimist,"  "On  the  Capture  of 
Fugitive  Slaves  near  Washington,"  "  At  the  Commence 
ment  Dinner,"  "A  Fable  for  Critics";  and  the  following 
from  the  Hi  glow  Papers  :  "  What  Mr.  Robinson  Thinks," 
"The  Pious  Editor's  Creed,"  "The  Corn-tin', "  "Sunthin 
in  the  Pastoral  Line." 

2.  Essays.      "On    a    Certain    Condescension    in    For 
eigners,"  "  Shakespeare  Once  More." 

These  essays  are  suggested  simply  as  being  suitable  for 
the  purpose.  Where  all  are  so  excellent,  selection  is  ex 
tremely  difficult. 

3.  BiograpJiy  and  Criticism.      Recollections  and  Appre 
ciations  of,  by  Francis  II.  Underwood  ;  Letters,  edited  by 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  (2  vols.);  Stedman's  Poets  of  America; 
Haweis's  American  Humorists ;  Curtis's  Literary  and  So 
cial  Essays ;  Henry  James's  Essays  in  London;  "James 
Russell  Lowell ; "  Whipple's   Outlooks  on  Society,  Litera 
ture,  and  Politics  ;  "  Lowell  as  a  Prose  Writer  ;  "  William 
Watson's  Excursion  sin  Criticism  ;  "  Lowell  as  a  Critic  ;" 
Barrett  Wendell's  Stelligeri,  and  other  Essays  Concerning 
America;  "  Mr.  Lowell  as  a  Teacher." 

Holmes.  1.  Poems.  "  Old  Ironsides,"  "  One-Hoss 
Shay,"  "The  Chambered  Nautilus,"  "Dorothy  Q.," 
"Musa,"  "Treadmill  Song,"  "The  Last  Leaf,"  "The 
Music  Grinder,"  "La  Grisette,"  "  The  Oystermau."  (Com 
pare  Thackeray's  ballade-form.) 


LITERATURE   IN   NEW    ENGLAND  245 

(Much  of  Dr.  Holmes's  poetry  is  of  the  nature  of  Vers 
de  Sodete,  which  has  been  well  defined  as  "  the  expression 
of  common  sentiment  and  common  feeling  in  graceful  but 
familiar  rhyme."  Prior  and  other  eighteenth-century  poets 
were  particularly  successful  in  this  kind  of  writing  ;  but  its 
popularity  has  not  been  confined  to  any  particular  age. 
Among  the  modern  writers,  Mr.  Frederick  Locker-Lampson 
(died  1895)  and  Mr.  Austin  Dobson  have  probably  been  the 
most  successful  producers  of  this  kind  of  verso.  An  inter 
esting  article  on  this  subject  is  "English  Fugitive  Poets," 
by  G.  Barnett  Smith,  in  Poets  and  Novelists  (Appleton, 
1876).  See  also  Lyra  Elegantiarum,  edited  by  Mr.  F. 
Locker-Lampson  (1867).) 

2.  The  Breakfast  Table  Series.     Of  these  the  Autocrat 
is  the  best.     As  the  book  is  of  a  fragmentary  character,  a 
fair  idea  of  it  may  be  gotten  from  representative  passages. 

3.  Novels.     If  any  of  the  novels  are  read,  Elsie  Venner 
will  probably  best  repay  perusal. 

4.  Biography  and  Criticism.     Life,  by  "W.  S.  Kennedy, 
and  by  E.  E.  Brown  ;  Life  and  Letters,  by  John  T.  Morse, 
Jr.  (2  vols.).     Stedman's  Poets  of  America  ;  Curtis's  Liter 
ary  and  Social  Essays;    Haweis's  American  Humorists; 
Whipple's  Essays  and  Reviews,  vol.  i. 

Whittier.  1.  Narrative  and  Legendary  Poems.  "Cas 
sandra  Southwick,"  "Barclay  of  Ury,"  "Skipper  Ireson's 
Ride,"  "  Telling  the  Bees,"  "  Maud  Muller." 

2.  Poems  Subjective  and  Reminiscent.     "  The  Barefoot 
Boy,"    "Snow-Bound"  (compare  this  poem  with  Burns's 
"The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night"),  "  In  School  Days." 

3.  Religious  Poems.      "The    Eternal    Goodness,"    "In 
Quest,"  "Trust." 

4.  War-time  Poems.    "  Barbara  Frietchie,"  "  Laus  Deo," 
"  Massachusetts  to  Virginia." 

5.  Personal  Poems.     "  Ichabod,"  "  Burns." 

6.  Biography  and    Criticism.     Life    and    Letters,  by 


246     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Samuel  T.  Pickard  (2  vols.) ;  Stoddard's  Haunts  and  Homes 
of  Our  Elder  Poets;  Stedman's  Poets  of  America;  "Whipplc's 
Essays  and  Reviews,  vol.  i.;  Barrett  "Wendell's  Stelligeri. 

The  Historians.  (It  is  impossible  to  enjoy  or  appreciate 
our  great  historians  merely  by  reading  selections  from  their 
works.  As  soon  as  possible  the  student  should  make  him 
self  acquainted  with  each  of  these  writers  by  a  carefuj 
reading  of  at  least  one  of  his  works.  The  following  sugges 
tions  are  made  for  his  future  guidance,  but  the  list  might 
profitably  be  increased :) 

1.  BANCROFT,     (a)  History  of  the  United  States. 

(b)  Biography  and  Criticism.  Century  Magazine,  vol. 
ii.  p.  473,  article  by  Wm.  M.  Sloane;  Griswold's  Prose 
Writers  of  American  Literature. 

2.  PRESCOTT.     (a)  Conquest  of  Mexico ;  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella. 

(b)  Biography  and  Criticism.  Life  of,  by  G.  Ticknor ; 
Edward  Everett's  Oration  on,  in  Everett's  Orations ;  Essay 
on,  in  Essays  and  Reviews,  vol.  ii.,  by  Whipple. 

3.  MOTLEY,     (a)  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 

In  addition  to  the  works  of  Motley  mentioned  in  the  text, 
his  unfinished  Life  of  John  of  Barneveld  is  worthy  of 
notice,  both  on  account  of  Barneveld's  connection  with  the 
period  which  Motley  treats,  and  for  the  masterly  way  in 
which  the  character  is  presented. 

(b)  Biography  and  Criticism,  Memoir  of,  by  O.  W. 
Holmes  ;  Tlie  Correspondence  of,  edited  by  George  W. 
Curtis;  Article  on,  in  Recollections  of  Eminent  Men,  by 
E.  P.  Whipple. 

4.  PARKMAN.     (a)  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac. 

(b)  Biography  and  Criticism.  Griswold's  Prose  Writers 
of  America,  p.  679  ;  Authors  at  Home ;  Personal  and 
Biographical  Sketches  of  American  Writers,  edited  by  J.  S. 
and  J.  B.  Gilder  (1888). 

5.  Webster,    (a)  Webster's  Great  Speeches  and  Orations, 


LITERATURE    IX    NEW    ENGLAND  247 

published  by  Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  Boston  (1879);  Works 
of,  in  6  vols.,  with  biographical  sketch  by  Edward  Everett ; 
"  Reply  to  Hayne,"  in  Orations  and  Arguments  by  English 
and  American  Statesmen,  edited  by  Cornelius  B.  Bradley. 

(6)  Biography  and  Criticism.  Life  of,  by  George  T. 
Curtis ;  Life  of,  by  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  in  American 
Statesmen  /Series.  For  his  style,  see  Whipple's  American 
Literature,  and  Whipple's  Essays  and  Reviews,  vol.  i. 

Whittier's  poem  "  Ichabod  "  is  of  interest,  as  it  represents 
the  unfavorable  view  taken  by  the  abolitionists  of  Webster's 
later  political  course. 


CHAPTER  III 
LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH 

ON  the  whole  the  literature  of  England  is  that  of  a 
Northern  people.  The  early  Continental  surroundings 
of  the  English  people  in  a  bleak,  rain-drenched,  storm- 
swept  region  were  conducive  to  earnestness  and 
melancholy  rather  than  to  that  simple  joy  of  life 
natural  to  those  who  dwell  under  a  fairer  and  more 
southern  sky.  In  spite  of  many  modifying  foreign 
influences,  the  early  race-traits  of  the  English  have 
maintained  their  place  with  a  dogged  persistency,  and 
we  still  find  that  a  subdued  or  sombre  coloring,  a  deep 
seriousness,  a  masculine  vigor,  rather  than  a  lightness 
and  grace,  continue  to  characterize  much  of  their  best 
work.  But  when  the  English  settled  Virginia,  when 
they  established  themselves  in  the  Carolinas  and  in 
Georgia,  this  ancient  Northern  race  found  itself  trans 
ported  into  the  midst  of  Southern  conditions.  In 
place  of  the  duller  skies  of  England,  clouded  with  a 
soft  haze  or  obscured  by  a  curtain  of  fog,  they  were 
set  down  in  an  atmosphere  of  transparent  brilliancy, 
in  a  land  where  the  mighty  woods  were  bright  with 
gaily -plumaged  birds,  where  the  heavens  spread  above 
them  a  luminous  dome  of  blue  in  which  at  night  the 

248 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  249 

stars  glittered  with  wonderful  radiance.  In  New 
England  this  same  Anglo-Saxon  race  fought  storm, 
privation,  and  peril  after  the  manner  of  their  fathers; 
they  were  still  a  people  of  the  North.  But  another 
branch  of  this  English  stock  came  tinder  a  softer 
and  less  bracing  atmosphere :  they  came  into  a  mild 
and  luxuriant  region,  a  land  of  rich  fields  of  rice  and 
cotton,  reaching  down  to  semi-tropical  Florida,  with 
its  winding  bayous,  its  glowing  wealth  of  flowers,  and 
the  Northern  English  literature  came  under  the 
gentler  influences  of  the  warm  and  passionate  South. 
It  is  only  within  a  very  recent  period,  in  such  story- 
writers  as  Geo.  "W.  Cable,  Lafcadio  Hearn,  and  Thos. 
Nelson  Page,  that  the  effect  of  these  new  conditions 
on  literature  has  really  become  apparent,  for  until 
after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  independent 
literary  development  of  the  Southern  States  was  re 
tarded  by  causes  which  have  already  been  partially 
explained.  The  provision  for  general  education  in 
the  South  long  continued  painfully  inadequate. 
Among  the  upper  classes,  the  languorous  climate,  the 
possession  of  great  estates  crowded  with  slaves  whose 
constant  attendance  relieved  their  masters  from  the 
necessity  of  making  personal  exertion — all  these  things, 
working  in  an  aristocratic  and  conservative  society, 
tended  to  foster  among  the  more  educated  a  life  of 
splendid  ease.  Slave-labor,  the  richness  of  the  soil, 
and  the  structure  of  Southern  society,  all  tended  to 
make  the  South  largely  dependent  on  agriculture ;  so 
while  outside  its  limits  new  industries  were  springing 
up,  the  South,  holding  tenaciously  to  old  ways,  fell 


250     INTRODUCTION"   TO    AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

farther  and  farther  behind  the  other  sections  of  the 
country  in  the  rapid  march  of  national  prosperity. 
As  manufacturing  and  commerce  shot  ahead  in  the 
Northern  and  Middle  States,  as  the  young  West  flung 
all  its  magnificent  and  impetuous  energy  into  the 
utilization  of  its  superb  resources,  the  South,  en 
trenched  in  its  traditions  and  its  chivalry,  self-centered 
in  its  semi-feudal  and  Old- World  picturesqueness,  was 
left  an  anomaly  in  the  midst  of  the  eager  life  of  an 
enterprising,  money-making  republic. 

Such  conditions  told  heavily  in  many  ways  against 
literary  production.  From  the  first,  literature  had 
suffered  from  the  lack  of  town  life.  ' '  Jamestown  had 
perished,  Williamsburg  never  grew,  Richmond  did  not 
attain  much  size  until  long  after  Northern  cities  had 
become  centers  of  books  and  intelligence."  *  During 
the  present  century,  while  Charleston,  Richmond,  and 
New  Orleans  were  locally  important  and  influential, 
the  agricultural  South  had  no  such  centers  of  literary 
activity  as  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  New  York,  suc 
cessively  the  strongholds  of  literature  and  culture. 
Moreover,  in  a  society  where  there  was  no  adequate 
system  of  popular  education,  and  where  class  feeling 
was  strong,  one  who  belonged  to  the  masses  had  little 
chance  to  excel  in  literature,  while  one  who  belonged 
to  the  classes  was  unlikely  seriously  to  devote  him 
self  to  it,  or,  even  should  he  do  so,  was  unlikely  to 
succeed. 

There  was  indeed  no  lack  of  intellectual  ability 

*  Pioneers  of  Southern  Literature  :  "  A  Glance  at  the  Field," 
by  S.  A.  Link,  p.  11. 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  251 

inherent  in  the  South,  as  her  early  records  in  law, 
statesmanship,  and  oratory  abundantly  prove;  but  the 
best  powers  of  her  leading  minds  were  not  put  forth  in 
a  literary  direction.  A  gentleman  of  the  landed  or 
aristocratic  classes  was  apt  to  regard  literature  as  a 
graceful  accomplishment  rather  than  as  a  serious  and 
exacting  profession.  Thus  one  writer  tells  us  that  in 
Charleston  literature  was  often  thought  of  "as  the 
choice  recreation  of  gentlemen,  as  something  fair  and 
good,  to  be  courted  in  a  dainty,  amateur  fashion,  and 
illustrated  by  apropos  quotations  from  Lucretius, 
Virgil,  or  Horace."*  Another  Southern  writer 
declares  in  a  similar  strain  that  "  literature  stood  no 
chance  because  the  ambition  of  young  men  of  the 
South  was  universally  turned  in  the  direction  of 
political  distinction,  and  because  the  monopoly  of 
advancement  held  by  the  profession  of  the  law  was  too 
well  established  and  too  clearly  recognized  to  admit  of 
its  claim  being  contested."  f 

Another  potent  cause  was  doubtless  the  dearth  of 
influential  publishing-houses.  Poe,  the  greatest 
genius  the  South  has  given  to  literature,  was  driven 
to  depend  largely  upon  Northern  publishers  and 
Northern  magazines  for  his  support,  and  even  the 
Southern  writers  who  have  risen  into  prominence 
during  very  recent  years  have  almost  invariably  done 
so  through  the  medium  of  the  great  publishing- 
houses  and  magazines  of  the  North.  The  primary 

*  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne,  quoted  in  W.  P.  Trent's  Life  of 
Simms. 

\  The  Old  South,  by  Thomas  Xelson  Page,  p.  67. 


252     INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

causes  of  this  unfortunate  condition  were  probably 
the  lack  of  general  culture  and  literary  appreciation 
in  the  South.  Publishers,  magazines,  and  authors 
are  alike  dependent  for  their  support  upon  the 
readers  and  buyers  of  books,  and  when  culture  is  the 
monopoly  of  the  few,  the  conditions  are  all  unfavor 
able  to  literary  production. 

If  this  absence  of  the  diffusion  of  education  lay 
at  the  root  of  the  trouble,  another  radical  drawback 
seems  to  have  been  the  conservative  spirit  and  behind- 
the-age  tastes  among  the  cultivated  few.  Many  a 
Southern  library  contained  but  little  later  than  the 
English  classics  of  the  earlier  eighteenth  century, 
and  Pope  in  poetry  and  Addison  in  prose  were 
accepted  as  the  standards  of  correctness  and  elegance. 
AVe  cannot  but  contrast  this  with  the  Xew  England 
of  Channing  and  Emerson,  agitated  by  the  latest  wave 
of  German  thought,  and  quickly  responsive  to  the 
fervor  of  Coleridge  or  Carlyle.  So,  comparatively  cut 
off  from  the  fresh  current  of  ideas  abroad,  isolated  by 
its  peculiar  social  system  and  ideals  from  the  rest  of 
the  country,  yet  prone  to  disregard  or  discourage  an 
independent  literary  expression,  the  South,  before  the 
war,  was  heavily  handicapped. 

It  is  but  just  to  the  South  to  understand  clearly  the 
disadvantages  under  which  it  labored,  for  when  the 
facts  are  understood,  instead  of  asking  why  its  con 
tribution  to  literature  was  not  more  important,  we  are 
surprised  at  the  amount  it  accomplished.  Our  ten 
dency  is  to  slight  the  work  of  this  great  section,  and 
give  to  that  of  the  Northern  writers  a  somewhat  undue 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    SOUTH  253 

prominence.  A  more  impartial  survey  shows  us  that 
the  warm,  imaginative  Southern  nature,  sympathetic, 
beauty-loving,  romantic,  has  made  notable  additions 
to  our  literature  in  the  past,  and  that  it  is  likely  to 
prove  a  yet  more  important  element  in  our  national 
literature  in  the  future. 

Two  characteristics  of  the  Southern  literature  of 
this  century  are  precisely  what  the  social  conditions 
just  described  would  lead  us  to  expect.  In 

Tlio 

the  first  place,  a  large  proportion  of  the  WrjterB 
best  writing,  especially  during  the  earlier 
part  of  the  period,  is  produced  by  men  who  are  not 
professional  men  of  letters,  but  whose  chief  energies 
are  spent  in  other  fields.  Thus  JOHN  MARSHALL, 
whose  Life  of  Washington  (1804-1807)  has  been  called 
"  the  first  great  contribution  to  American  historical 
literature,"*  was  one  of  our  greatest  jurists  and  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States.  WILLIAM  WIRT, 
favorably  known  by  his  Life  of  Patrick  Henry  and 
Letters  of  a  British  Spy,  was  long  a  lawyer  in  active 
practice,  and  Attorney-General  under  Monroe  and 
Adams.  EDWARD  COATE  PIXKXEY  (1802-1828), 
some  of  whose  slight  and  sentimental  songs  echo  the 
lyrics  of  the  English  cavalier  poets  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  was  also  a  lawyer,  and  this  list  of  those 
whose  powers  were  thus  diverted  from  literature  might 
be  greatly  enlarged. 

In  the  second  place  we  are  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  there  are  no  groups  or  schools  of  writers  such  as 

*Cooke's  History  of  Virginia,  American  Common  wealths 
Series,  p.  490. 


254     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

we  find  gathered  about  a  common  center  in  Boston  or 
New  York.  Men  of  talent  and  of  literary  tastes  and 
ambition  appear  in  South  Carolina,  Virginia,  Georgia, 
and  Louisiana,  too  often  to  fight  almost  single-handed 
the  unequal  battle  against  poverty,  indifference,  or 
neglect.  It  is  consequently  difficult  to  gain  any  com 
prehensive  idea  of  Southern  literature,  as  its  history 
is  so  largely  a  record  of  comparatively  isolated  careers. 

Prominent  among  the  early  Southern  writers  of 
the  century  is  JOHN  PENDLETON  KENNEDY  (1795- 
1870),  a  native  of  Baltimore.  His  three 
Kennedy  novels,  Sivattow  Barn,  a  Story  of  Rural 
Life  in  Virginia  (1832);  Horse  Shoe 
Robinson,  a  Tale  of  the  Tory  Ascendency  (1835) ;  and 
Rob  of  the  Boivl  (1838),  present  to  us  a  vivid  and 
pleasing  picture  of  some  characteristic  aspects  of 
Southern  life.  Kennedy  is  another  example  of  the 
prevailing  tendency  to  subordinate  literature  to  other 
interests,  for,  like  so  many  of  his  literary  contempo 
raries,  he  led  the  active  life  of  a  lawyer  and  statesman 

Another  novelist,  WILLIAM  GILMORE  SIMMS  (1806- 
William  1870),  stands  apart  from  the  men  to 
Gilmore  whom  the  writing  of  books  was  but  a  side 
issue,  as  the  first  Southern  writer  of  dis 
tinction  to  follow  literature  as  a  profession.  This 
circumstance,  involving  as  it  did  a  long  and  gallant 
struggle  with  adverse  conditions,  gives  him  an  im 
portant  place,  aside  from  the  intrinsic  value  of  his 
writings,  as  the  pioneer  among  the  Southern  men  of 
letters.  Simms  was  a  man  of  fine  physique  and  vigor 
ous  personality,  his  character  was  noble  and  irnpetu- 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  255 

cms;  he  had  an  instinctive  delight  in  the  active  and 
adventurous  side  of  life,  and  described  it  in  many  a 
stirring  romance  with  a  true  sympathetic  power.  He 
was  born  in  Charleston,  and  became  in  after  years  an 
important  influence  in  its  intellectual  and  literary  life. 
Simms's  life  began  in  struggle  and  uncertainty,  for 
his  father  had  become  financially  involved,  and  moved 
from  place  to  place  in  the  effort  to  repair  his  broken 
fortunes.  The  boy's  early  opportunities  for  education 
were  scanty.  He  never  went  to  college,  but  from  the 
first  he  was  an  ardent  reader.  At  eight  years  of  age 
his  lifelong  passion  for  writing  had  already  declared 
itself.  As  a  youth,  he  was  a  druggist's  apprentice; 
then  he  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1827.  But  before  this  he  had  published  two  volumes 
of  youthful  verse,  and  an  irresistible  inclination  urged 
him  towards  literature.  After  several  other  ventures 
in  verse  Simms  published  Martin  Faber,  1833,  the  first 
of  that  long  succession  of  romances  of  adventure  on 
which  his  chief  claim  to  be  remembered  rests.  The 
best  of  these  stories  deal  with  the  Colonial  life  of  the 
South,  or  Avith  that  life  during  the  succeeding  period 
of  the  Revolution.  While  far  from  being  a  finished 
Avriter,  Simms  had  great  qualifications  for  such  a 
task,  an  enthusiastic  love  for  his  State  and  a  close 
acquaintance  with  its  scenery,  a  pride  in  the  history 
of  his  section,  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of  its  past. 
Behind  all  this  lay  the  genuine  narrative  power  and 
vigorous  spirit  of  the  man. 

Simms  is  distinctly  inferior  to  Cooper,  with  whom 
he  inevitably  suggests  comparison;  yet  his  best  stories 


256     INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

form  a  kind  of  companion  study  to  Cooper's  work, 
depicting  as  they  do  the  same  period  of  our  national 
growth  under  Southern  instead  of  under  Northern  or 
Western  conditions.  In  his  portrayal  of  the  Indian 
character  Simms  is  probably  more  truthful  than 
Cooper,  whose  Indian  heroes,  if  more  romantic,  are, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  more  ideal.  Among  Simms's  many 
books,  The  Yemassee  (1835),  which  deals  with  an 
Indian  outbreak  in  Colonial  South  Carolina,  and  The 
Partisan  (1835),  a  story  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
exploits  of  Marion  and  his  band,  may  be  mentioned 
as  good  examples  of  his  powers.  Charleston  may  be 
thought  of  as  the  nearest  approach  the  South  had  to 
a  literary  center  in  Simms's  time,  yet  Charleston  was 
slow  to  recognize  him,  and  he  was  often  forced  to 
look  to  the  North  for  help  and  encouragement. 
Many  of  his  works  were  published  in  New  York,  and 
once  on  returning  from  a  trip  to  that  city  he  declared 
bitterly  that  he  was  surprised  to  find  the  North  so 
warm  and  the  South  so  cold.  But  Simms  was  a  man 
of  generous,  helpful  temper,  and,  although  nearly 
ruined  by  the  Civil  War,  he  did  all  in  his  power  for 
the  younger  literary  men  who  were  trying  to  force 
their  way  to  the  front. 

Among   them   were   the   poets  PAUL    HAMILTON 
HAYNE  (1830-1886)  and  HENRY  TIMROD 

H.ayne  and  (1829-1867),  both  of  whom  were  natives  of 
Timrod.  v 

Charleston  and  members  of  this  Charleston 
group.  Unlike  Simms,  Hayne  was  a  college  graduate, 
the  heir  to  a  moderate  fortune,  and  the  inheritor  of 
an  ancient  name.  He  became  a  contributor  to  several 


LITERATURE   IX   T1IE    SOUTH  257 

Southern  magazines,  but  like  so  many  of  his  contem 
poraries,  he  entrusted  his  first  volume  to  a  Northern 
publishing-house  (Poems:  Ticknor  &  Fields;  Boston, 
1855).  lie  had  studied  law  in  his  youth,  but  he  gave 
a  lifetime  of  single-minded  effort  to  his  art.  His 
poetry  is  melodious,  graceful,  and  carefully  wrought, 
but  while  not  precisely  imitative,  it  is  often  close  in 
form  and  manner  to  certain  English  models.  Like 
Keats  and  William  Morris,  he  is  touched  by  the 
beauty  of  the  classic  and  romantic  ideals,  and  his 
narrative  poems  have  an  undeniable  smoothness  and 
charm.  He  also  excelled  as  a  sonneteer. 

The  memory  of  his  lifelong  friend  Henry  Timrod 
is  closely  associated  with  Hayne.  The  two  poets  were 
schoolfellows  in  Charleston,  and  in  their  early  youth 
they  frequently  attended  the  literary  reunions  at  the 
hospitable  home  of  Simms.  Timrod  died  at  thirty- 
eight,  and  left  but  a  slender  volume  of  verse  behind 
him.  Hayne  far  surpassed  him  in  range  as  well  as  in 
the  amount  of  his  poetic  production.  Nevertheless 
there  is  in  Timrod  a  more  distinctly  Southern  atmos 
phere  and  a  stronger  note  of  personality.  We  are 
inclined  to  associate  Hayne  with  that  amiable  English 
poet  Leigh  Hunt ;  but  Timrod  has  an  originality  which 
makes  him  the  precursor  of  the  Southern  genius, 
Sidney  Lanier.  Thus  The  Cotton  Boll,  with  its  vista 
of  the  wide  expanse  of  snowy  cotton-fields  bathed  in 
the  dazzling  sunlight,  and  its  defiant  note  of  challenge 
to  the  North,  is  both  suggestive  of  Lanier  and  dis 
tinctly  the  product  of  the  South.  In  many  of  Tim- 
rod's  poems  we  are  delighted  with  descriptions  of 


258     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

nature  that  betray  a  close  observation  and  genuine 
sympathy;  indeed  all  of  Timrod's  work  has  this 
genuine  quality.  There  is  nothing  bookish  or  second 
hand  about  it;  it  speaks  rather  of  a  fresh  and  inde 
pendent  grasp  of  life. 

In  reviewing  the  work  of  this  little  group  of  Charles 
ton  writers  we  must  remember  that,  in  common  with 
other  Southern  writers,  their  prospects  were  blighted 
and  their  free  development  checked  by  the  desperate 
struggle  of  the  Civil  War.  At  the  outbreak  of  thia 
desolating  contest  Charleston  was  just  beginning  to 
be,  in  a  lesser  degree,  the  Boston  of  the  South.  The 
number  of  ambitious  periodicals  started  within  its 
borders  between  1828  (The  Southern  Review]  and 
1842  (Southern  Quarterly]  bears  witness  to  the  literary 
aspirations  of  at  least  some  of  its  leaders,  even  if  the 
short  life  of  most  of  these  enterprises  points  with 
equal  certainty  to  the  lack  of  a  reading  public.  But 
when  Simms  had  led  the  way  and  by  his  gallant  fight 
made  literature  more  possible  as  a  profession  for  those 
who  came  after,  the  very  life  of  the  South  was  absorbed 
in  the  four  tragic  years  of  war.  While  the  war  fur 
nished  a  theme  to  many  a  Southern  poet;  while 
Hayne,  Timrod,  and  many  others  sang  their  songs  of 
battle  with  an  intense  conviction  of  the  righteousness 
of  their  cause,  rivalling  that  of  Whittier  or  Lowell  in 
the  North, — the  Civil  War  was,  on  the  whole,  a  heavy 
blow  to  the  rising  Southern  literature.  In  the  midst 
of  that  life-and-death  struggle,  with  the  Northern 
arms  on  their  soil,  men  had  neither  time  nor  money 
for  the  patronage  of  literature,  nor  the  desire  to  turn 
aside  from  the  one  issue  which  claimed  them.  And 


LITEHATUKE    IN   THE    SOUTH  259 

to  many  a  promising  Southern  writer  the  war  brought 
little  short  of  financial  ruin.  It  reduced  Simms,  who 
was  living  in  affluence,  to  the  bitter  necessity  of  toiling 
at  hack-work  for  a  bare  living;  it  swept  away  Ilayne's 
fortune  and  forced  him  to  depend  upon  his  own  exer 
tions;  it  brought  Timrod  to  the  verge  of  actual  starva 
tion,  involving  him  in  difficulties  from  which  he  was 
released  only  by  death.  When  we  think  of  the  odds 
against  which  these  Southern  writers  contended,  and 
then  recall  all  those  favoring  circumstances  in  which 
the  genius  of  Longfellow  and  many  another  member 
of  the  New  England  group  was  enabled  to  reach  its 
full  development,  we  cannot  but  wonder  what  the 
South  might  have  accomplished  for  our  literature 
under  equally  advantageous  conditions. 

Apart  from  this  little  coterie  of  Charleston  writers 
were  the  Virginia  novelists  JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE  (1830- 
1886)  and  MARY  VIRGINIA  TERHUNE  , 

Virginia. 

(1837-),  better  known  under  her  pseudo 
nym  of  Marion  Ilarland.  Cooke  portrayed  the  stately 
and  aristocratic  life  in  old  Virginia,  essaying  to  do 
for  his  native  State  what  Simms  had  accomplished 
for  South  Carolina,  Hawthorne  for  Colonial  New  Eng 
land,  or  Irving  for  Knickerbocker  New  York.  Some 
of  his  later  romances,  such  as  The  Wearing  of  the 
Gray,  deal  with  the  Civil  War,  in  which  Cooke  him 
self  took  part.  He  also  wrote  some  biographies  and  an 
excellent  history  of  Virginia.  The  Virginia  Come 
dians  (1854),  which  has  been  pronounced  "  the  best 
novel  produced  in  the  South  before  the  war,"  *  gives 

*  This  is   the  verdict  of   both  Prof.   Richardson   and  Prof. 


2GO     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

an  interesting  picture  of  the  courtly  society  at  Wil- 
liamsburg,  the  old  capital,  under  the  ancient  regime. 
The  book,  however,  belongs  to  an  era  in  novel-writing 
that  has  passed  away,  and  to  the  modern  taste  the 
style  is  high-flown  and  extravagant,  while  the  humor 
often  seems  to  come  dangerously  near  to  the  absurd. 
Marion  Harland,  who,  though  born  in  Virginia,  has 
spent  a  great  part  of  her  life  in  the  Xorth,  has  also 
depicted  Southern  life.  Her  books,  which  are  quieter 
and  more  finished  in  tone  than  those  of  Cooke,  gained 
a  well-deserved  popularity. 

Besides  the  writers  which  Virginia  has  given  to 
literature,  she  has  the  distinction  of  having  produced 
and  sustained  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger  (Rich 
mond,  1835-1864),  the  best-known  literary  magazine 
of  the  South.  Compared  with  our  leading  periodicals 
of  to-day  it  impresses  us  as  amateurish  and  provincial, 
yet  it  was  of  inestimable  advantage  to  many  a  rising 
Southern  writer,  and  an  important  factor  in  literary 
development.  As  Thomas  Xelson  Page,  one  of  the 
best  of  the  recent  writers  of  Virginia,  remarks,  "  It 
had  much  to  do  with  sustaining  the  unstable  Poe,  and 
with  developing  nearly  all  those  writers  of  the  South 
whose  names  have  survived."  * 

Georgia,  although  deficient  in  large  towns,  and 
without  a  literary  center,  has  made  most  important 
additions  to  the  literature  of  the  South.  It  has 

Beers.  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  on  the  other  hand,  expre  ses  a 
preference  for  the  later  novels. 

*  "  Authorship  in  the  South  Before  the  War,"  in  The  Old 
South. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   SOUTH  261 

enriched  our  literature  of  humor  with  the  graphic 
Georgia  Scenes  of  A.  B.  LONGSTREET,  and,  in  our 
day,  with  the  restful  fun  and  shrewd  wisdom  of  JOEL 
C HANDLER  HARRIS.  To  Georgia  we  owe  another 
recent  writer,  RICHARD  MALCOLM  JOHNSTON,  whose 
short  stories  are  widely  and  favorably  known.  In 
poetry  it  has  given  us  Dr.  FRANK  0.  TICKNOR 
(1822-1874)  and  SIDNEY  LANIER  (1842-1881),  the 
latter,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  the  greatest  literary 
genius  the  South  has  yet  produced.  Dr.  Ticknor 
lived  the  self-sacrificing  life  of  a  kindly,  hard-worked 
physician,  but  in  the  scant  leisure  which  the  duties  of 
his  profession  allowed  him  he  wrote  some  poems — less 
known  than  they  should  be — which  deserve  to  live. 
One  of  these,  Little  Giffen,  which  commemorates  one 
of  the  otherwise  unknown  heroes  of  the  war,  has  a 
concentrated  force  and  directness  which  make  it  not 
unworthy  of  comparison  with  some  of  Browning's 
shorter  narrative  poems.  Lanier's  work  is  of  so  great 
importance  as  to  demand  a  separate  mention. 

In  Louisiana,  literature  has  been  notably  influenced 
by  the  large  French  element  in  the  population,  and  so 
pronounced  is  this  influence  that  some  of  its  most  im 
portant  contributions  to  literature  have  been  written 
in  French.  But  in  more  recent  years,  Louisiana, 
with  Indiana  and  Kentucky,  has  helped  onward  the 
rising  literature  of  the  far  South. 

From  this  general  survey  of  the  place  of  the  South 
ern  States  in  the  making  of  our  national  literature 
we  must  pass  to  a  fuller  consideration  of  two  leading 
writers,  Edgar  Allan  Poe  and  Sidney  Lanier. 


262     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

STUDY    LIST 
SOUTHERN  LITERATURE 

1.  Songs  of  the  South,  edited  by  J.  T.  Clarke,  with  an 
introduction  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris  (Lippincott,  1895),  con 
tains  a  selection  from  Southern  poets  from  Colonial  times 
to  the  present  day.      War  Poetry  of  the  South,  edited  by 
Wm.  Gilmore  Simms  (New  York,  1867). 

2.  Southern  Literature,  by  Louise  Manly  (Richmond, 
1895),  contains  a  pretty  full  collection  of  Southern  writers, 
with  brief  biographies,  and  short  extracts  from  their  works  ; 
but  it  gives  little  or  no  idea  of  the  historical  development 
of  Southern  literature,  or  of  the  conditions  under  which 
it  has  been  produced.     The  Old  /South,  by  Thomas  Nelson 
Page,    contains   an   article  on   Authorship   in  the    South 
before  the  war,  and  is  valuable  in  general  for  a  study  of 
Southern  conditions  from  a  Southern  point  of  view. 

Dr.  Frank  O.  Ticknor,  Henry  Timrod,  and  Paul  Hamilton 
Hayne,  by  Samuel  A.  Link,  in  the  little  series  of  studies 
entitled  Pioneers  of  Southern  Literature. 

There  is  also  another  series  by  Win.  Malone  Baskervill, 
entitled  /Southern  Writers. 

For  reference  to  Virginia  in  particular,  consult  Cooke's 
Virginia  in  the  American  Commonwealths  Series.  See 
also  "English  Culture  in  Virginia,"  by  W.  P.  Trent  (Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  vii.  p.  198). 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  (1809-1849) 

Probably  no  writer  in  the  history  of  our  literature 
has  been  the  subject  of  such  active  controversy  as 
Edgar  Allan  Poe.  As  a  man  he  has  had  bitter 
assailants  and  indignant  defenders;  he  has  alternately 
been  loaded  by  his  defamers  with  unmeasured  abuse, 
and  presented  to  us  by  his  generous  advocates  as  one 
driven  to  his  ruin  by  "unmerciful  disaster";  au 


EDGAR     ALLAN      POE 


LITERATURE    IN    THE    SOUTH  263 

unhappy  genius,  worthy  of  our  pity  and  our  tears.  As 
a  poet  his  place  has  been  almost  equally  a  matter  of 
dispute.  Some  critics  of  eminence  have  placed  him 
in  the  first  rank  among  the  poets  of  America,  while 
others,  impressed  by  the  narrowness  of  his  range  and 
his  lack  of  a  broad  basis  of  thought  and  emotion,  have 
considered  him  as  a  clever  craftsman,  chiefly  remark 
able  for  his  skill  in  the  employment  of  certain  metrical 
and  melodic  effects.  Other  writers,  again,  contend 
that  the  true  view  is  to  be  found  in  some  middle 
region  between  these  extremes.  In  all  this  confu 
sion  one  thing  at  least  is  certain — Poe  is  one  of  the 
few  American  writers  who  somehow  have  succeeded 
in  arresting  and  holding  the  attention  of  the  world  of 
letters.  At  least  one  of  his  productions,  The  Raven, 
is  among  the  most  widely  known  short  poems  in  the 
language;  his  short  stories  have  been  enthusiastically 
received,  especially  in  France ;  and  whatever  we  may 
think  of  his  character,  his  aims,  or  his  work,  Poe  is 
one  of  the  men  about  whom  the  student  of  literature 
is  bound  to  have  an  opinion. 

Only  the  main  facts  in  the  story  of  Poe's  unregu 
lated  and  unhappy  life  need  be  given  here.  We  have 
said  that  the  poets  of  the  New  England  group  were 
remarkable  for  the  nobility  and  purity  of  their  lives. 
From  first  to  last  they  impress  us  with  a  steadfast 
ness  and  strength  of  purpose  which  springs  from  a 
solid  basis  of  manhood ;  when  sorrow  overtakes  them 
they  meet  it  with  fortitude,  and  they  are  secure  in 
the  power  of  self-control.  From  whatever  cause, 
Poe's  life  and  character,  when  placed  beside  that  of 


264     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN"    LITERATURE 

Longfellow  or  of  Lowell,  stand  out  in  sharp  and 
tragic  contrast.  Among  our  American  men  of  letters 
Poe  is  peculiarly  representative  of  that  unfortunate 
class  of  men  of  geuius  which  in  England  includes 
Marlowe,  Burns,  and  B}7ron ;  men  whose  just  balance 
was  destroyed,  and  whose  lives  were  wrecked  at  last  by 
the  association,  with  their  great  gifts,  of  ungoverned 
emotions,  weakness  of  will,  and  a  morbid  outlook  on 
the  world.  We  need  not  take  it  upon  ourselves 
either  to  blame  or  to  excuse;  we  are  simply  called 
upon  to  realize  the  facts  of  Poe's  life  so  far  as  they 
help  us  to  appreciate  the  tone  and  spirit  of  his  work. 

Poe's  place  in  our  literature  is  one  of  peculiar  isola 
tion.  Of  Northern  birth  but  of  Southern  ancestry, 
he  belongs  by  common  consent  among  the  writers  of 
the  South;  yet  his  writings,  unlike  those  of  Simms, 
Timrod,  and  their  associates,  have  no  distinctively 
Southern  background.  He  is  not  bound  to  any  one 
section,  but  wanders  in  his  unsettled  and  struggling 
career  from  city  to  city,  trying  his  fortune  with  equal 
ill  success  in  Boston,  Eichmoud,  Baltimore,  Phila 
delphia,  and  New  York.  Unlike  Irving,  Emerson,  or 
Longfellow,  he  belongs  to  no  literary  movement  or 
coterie :  distantly  resembling  Hawthorne  in  his  prose 
tales,  his  deepest  ties  are  with  trans-Atlantic  writers; 
in  his  own  country  he  stands  essentially  alone. 

Poe   came    of    an    old    and   honorable   Maryland 

family.     His  father,  David  Poe,  married 

ljfe  an    actress,    and    himself    went    on    the 

stage.      Their    profession    took    them    to 

Boston,  and  there  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  the  second  of 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  265 

three  children,  was  born  on  the  19th  of  January, 
1800.  Two  years  later  the  death  of  both  parents 
within  a  year  left  the  children,  the  eldest  only  five 
years  old,  wholly  unprovided  for.  Poe's  mother  had 
died  in  Richmond,  and  the  child  was  charitably 
received  into  the  family  of  his  godfather,  Mr.  John 
Allan,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  that  city,  who  treated 
him  with  kindness,  and,  as  he  grew  up,  made  liberal 
provision  for  his  education. 

The  Allans  spent  some  time  in  England,  placing  Poe 
in  a  school  near  London,  and  on  their  return  to  Rich 
mond  he  entered  the  University  of  Virginia  (1826). 
So  far,  it  must  be  admitted,  Poe's  opportunities  had 
been  far  greater  than  his  early  misfortunes  would 
have  led  us  to  expect;  but  at  college,  while  he  dis 
tinguished  himself  as  a  scholar,  he  developed  an  un 
fortunate  propensity  for  gambling,  involving  himself 
in  debts  which  Mr.  Allan  finally  refused  to  pay.  His 
benefactor  accordingly  took  him  from  college  and  put 
him  into  business  in  Richmond.  But  the  drudgery 
of  the  counting-house  was  repugnant  to  Poe's  tastes; 
he  was  doubtless  impatient  of  control,  and  he  forfeited 
his  opportunity  a  second  time  by  running  away  to 
Boston  and  enlisting  in  the  regular  army,  where  he 
served  with  some  credit  for  two  years. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Boston  he  had  taken  the 
first  step  in  his  literary  career  by  the  publication  of  a 
small  book  of  verse,  Tamerlaine  and  Other  Poems 
(1827).  This  was  followed  two  years  later  by  a 
second  venture,  Al  Araaf  Tamerlaine,  and  Minor 
Poems  (1829).  At  this  time  English  poetry  had  just 


26G     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

passed  through  a  fervid  period  of  romance  and  senti 
ment,  and  these  early  poems  of  Foe's  show  that  he 
was  affected  by  the  prevailing  spell  of  Byron  and 
Moore.  As  Mr.  Stedman  says:  "  Poe,  growing  up 
under  the  full  romantic  stress  at  the  end  of  the 
Georgian  period,  .  .  .  inevitably  copied  the  manner 
and  structure  of  poems  he  must  have  known  by 
heart."*  Moreover,  one  of  Poe's  morbid  tempera 
ment,  witli  an  unwholesome  fondness  for  melancholy, 
must  have  found  something  peculiarly  attractive  in 
Byron's  congenial  gloom. 

In  1829  Poe  effected  a  partial  reconciliation  with 
Mr.  Allan,  who  again  gave  his  aid  by  securing  his 
admission  to  West  Point.  This  third  opportunity 
was  also  wilfully  thrown  away.  Poe  neglected,  and 
finally  utterly  disregarded,  his  military  duties,  and  as 
a  result  was  court-martialled  and  dismissed  in  1831. 
Thus  again  thrown  on  his  own  resources,  for  he  could 
expect  no  further  aid  from  Mr.  Allan,  Poe  settled  in 
Baltimore,  and,  after  one  or  two  years  of  struggle, 
entered  upon  the  hard  task  of  supporting  himself  by 
his  pen.  His  first  literary  success  was  his  story  of 
the  MS,  found  in  a  Bottle,  which  won  him  a  prize  of 
one  hundred  dollars  (1833).  In  the  year  following 
Mr.  Allan  died,  without  making  provision  for  his 
former  ward,  so  that  Poe  was  left,  as  he  said,  "  penni 
less,  without  a  profession,  and  with  very  few  friends." 
Nevertheless  in  1835  he  married  his  cousin,  Virginia 
Clemm,  a  girl  of  thirteen.  It  is  but  just  to  say  that 

*  Stedinan   and  Woodberry's  ed.  of  Poe,    vol.    x.;  Introd., 
p.  xx. 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  267 

Poe  was  devotedly  attached  to  his  wife  from  first  to 
last,  and  that  she  and  her  mother  faithfully  shared 
his  poverty  and  disappointments,  and  were  patient 
with  his  faults.  Even  at  this  time  he  yielded  habitu 
ally  to  that  passion  for  drink  which  was  at  last  his 
ruin.  He  was  in  great  destitution  when  through 
the  influence  of  J.  P.  Kennedy  he  obtained  employ 
ment  on  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  which  had 
just  been  started.  From  this  time  he  led  an  un 
settled,  hand-to-mouth  existence.  He  was  connected 
from  time  to  time  with  various  magazines,  and  he 
became  widely  known  as  poet,  story-writer,  critic, 
and  editor.  The  illness  of  his  wife,  who  died  in  1847, 
drove  Poe,  if  we  accept  his  own  account,  to  greater 
excesses.  At  all  events  his  habits  grew  worse,  and  in 
addition  to  excessive  drinking  he  became  addicted  to 
the  use  of  opium.  From  these  causes,  and  probably 
because  his  peculiarities  of  temperament  made  him 
difficult  to  get  along  with,  Poe's  engagements  with 
the  various  magazines  and  periodicals  with  which  he 
was  successively  connected  were  usually  of  short 
duration.  With  numerous  opportunities,  with  friends 
disposed  to  advance  his  interests,  with  undoubted 
ability,  and  with  great  readiness  as  a  writer,  his 
poverty  somehow  kept  pace  with  his  growing  reputa 
tion.  Almost  to  the  last  he  cherished  great  plans;  if 
he  worked  irregularly,  he  yet  worked  hard  and  rapidly, 
and  he  has  left  his  impress  upon  our  poetry  and  our 
prose;  yet  his  life,  extenuate  it  as  we  may,  is  a 
melancholy  record  of  weakness  and  error,  from  the 
dissipations  of  his  college  days  to  its  awful  close.  In 


268     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

1849,  having  become  engaged  to  be  married  to  a  Mrs. 
Shelton,  he  came  to  Baltimore  to  bring  Mrs.  Clemm 
to  the  wedding.  While  there  he  was  found  overcome 
by  drink  or  opium,  and  dangerously  ill.  He  was  taken 
to  a  hospital,  and  there  a  few  days  later  he  died. 

Poe  claims  our  attention  as  a  critic,  a  poet,  and  a 

story-writer.      His    critical    work,    while    sometimes 

acute  and  discriminating,  especially  when 

Poe  as  a  j^  dea]s  with  the  technicalities  of  composi- 
wnter. 

tion,  is,  on  the  whole,  of  passing  rather 

than  of  lasting  importance,  and  adds  but  little  to  his 
permanent  reputation.  He  had  not,  as  Lowell  had, 
the  breadth  of  view  and  the  solid  basis  of  scholarship 
which  are  such  important  elements  in  any  enduring 
work  of  criticism.  Lacking  these  great  essentials, 
Poe  was  not  free  from  a  taint  of  petty  jealousy,  and 
at  times  he  suffered  his  personal  likes  or  dislikes  to  in 
fluence  his  critical  judgments.  A  conspicuous  exam 
ple  of  this  is  found  in  his  series  of  papers  on  The 
Literati  of  Neiv  York.  On  the  other  hand,  he  did 
good  service,  as  in  his  recognition  of  the  genius  of 
Hawthorne,  and  if  his  work  in.  this  direction  is  not  of 
the  highest  quality,  he  must  be  recognized  as  among 
the  influential  critics  of  his  time. 

Poe's  critical  writings  have  already  fallen  into   a 
comparatively  subordinate  place,  and  it  is  on  his  work 

as  poet  and  romance- writer  that  our 
As  poet  and  estimate  of  his  genius  must  really  rest. 
writer06"  Judged  by  this,  the  best  that  he  has 

given  us,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge  his 
very  positive  limitations.  He  is  neither  profound  nor 


LITERATURE    IN    THE   SOUTH  269 

varied ;  he  is  powerless  to  uplift,  to  inspire,  or  to  con 
sole.  His  fame  rests,  not  on  his  ability  to  do  many 
things,  but  on  his  power  to  do  a  few  things  almost 
incomparably  well.  The  reasons  for  his  success  within 
certain  positive  limits  are  singularly  definite  and  com 
prehensible,  and  we  can  enumerate  the  magic  gifts 
which  the  fairy  godmother  of  genius  bestowed  on  him 
in  his  cradle. 

He  was  endowed  with  that  power  of  close  analysis, 
of  logical  and  consecutive  thought,  which  we  associate 
with  a  mathematical  and  keenly  intellectual  mind. 
While  this  is  by  no  means  his  greatest  gift,  it  shows 
itself  unmistakably  in  one  side  of  his  life  and  work. 
It  is  seen  in  his  power  of  deciphering  cryptograms, 
and  in  the  cleverness  with  which,  as  in  The  Gold  Bug, 
he  involves  his  readers  in  a  tangle  in  order  to  delight 
them  with  his  skill  in  unravelling  it.  The  clear 
ness  of  his  reasoning  powers  is  shown  in  his  detective 
story,  The  Mystery  of  Marie  Roget.  He  was  able  to 
foretell  correctly  the  plot  of  Dickens's  Barnaby  Rudge 
after  reading  the  first  few  chapters,  and  nearly  half  a 
century  ago  he  could  predict  the  present  era  of  tall 
buildings  in  Xew  York  city.  The  same  hard  intel 
lectual  temper  is  shown  in  his  interest  in  science, 
of  which  he  made  use  in  fiction  somewhat  as  Jules 
Verne  did  in  later  years. 

Poe  was  further  endowed  with  great  narrative 
power  of  a  certain  kind.  He  could  tell  a  story  rapidly 
and  vividly,  filling  it  with  a  marvellous  reality  and 
thrilling  interest.  One  of  the  best  examples  of  this 
side  of  Foe's  genius  is  the  minute  and  horrible  story 


270     INTRODUCTION"   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

of  adventure,  The  Narrative  of  Arthur  Gordon  Pym. 
In  such  stories  Poe  is  the  follower  of  that  great  master 
of  realistic  story- telling,  Daniel  Defoe.*  But  while 
possessing  this  kind  of  narrative  power  in  a  high 
degree,  Poe  used  it  sparingly,  for  in  many  of  his  best 
stories  his  primary  object  is  not  the  unfolding  of  a 
plot,  but  the  revelation  of  a  mood  or  the  production 
of  a  single  effect.  This  ability  to  combine  the  in 
cidents  and  accessories  of  a  story  so  that  they  all  work 
together  to  deepen  a  single  impression  upon  the 
reader's  mind  and  imagination  was  one  of  the  greatest 
with  which  Poe  was  endowed.  From  this  aspect  the 
nature  of  his  art  may  well  be  styled  "  pictorial,"  for 
in  many  of  his  best  studies,  both  in  poetry  and  in 
prose,  he  resembles  a  painter  who  subordinates  every 
thing  to  the  production  of  one  harmonious  color  tone. 
With  Poe,  this  tone  or  total  effect  is  gradually  pro 
duced  by  the  introduction  of  a  number  of  minute  and 
highly  suggestive  descriptive  details,  each  touch, 
directed  to  the  same  end,  intensifying  the  effect  of 
what  has  gone  before,  until  the  whole  work  is  filled 
with  the  spirit  or  atmosphere  which  takes  hold  of  us 
•with  an  extraordinary  and  ever-increasing  power. 
The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher  is  a  good  instance  of 
Poe's  success  in  this  particular  method  of  composition. 
The  mood  of  passive  grief  which  the  story  embodies 
is  associated  with  and  interpreted  by  melancholy 
images  of  neglect,  decay,  and  death.  Our  apprecia 
tion  of  the  mental  condition  of  the  unhappy  master  of 
the  House  is  intensified  by  the  sombre  and  mournful 

*  See  Stoddard's  ed.  of  Poe's  Works  ;  Introd.,  vol.  i.  p.  11. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    SOUTH  271 

background  to  the  story,  ineffaceably  imprinted  on 
our  imagination, — a  doomed  house,  crumbling  into 
ruin,  with  its  vacant,  staring  windows;  the  whole 
structure  an  image  of  desolation  set  in  the  midst  of  a 
deserted  and  indescribably  dreary  landscape.  The 
spectral  trees  about  it,  with  their  stark,  white 
branches,  the  gray  sedge,  the  black  tarn, — all  these 
insensibly  combine  to  create  that  unity  of  effect  which 
makes  a  landscape  of  Poe's  as  individual,  after  its 
own  fashion,  as  a  picture  of  Corot's.  And  as  the 
command  of  neutral  tints  is  shown  in  the  subdued 
tone  of  this  picture,  so  the  command  of  color-effects 
is  conspicuous  in  TJie  Masque  of  the  Red  Death. 
There,  each  room  in  the  prince's  suite  is  ablaze  with 
a  color  of  its  own :  blue  or  purple,  green  or  orange, 
white  or  blood-red,  the  light  streams  through  the 
stained  glass  of  the  Gothic  windows.  This  same  pic 
torial  quality  reappears  in  certain  of  Poe's  poems. 
We  recognize  it  in  Ulalume,  with  its  autumnal  fall  of 
decay  and  death,  "  with  its  dank  tarn  of  Auber, "  its 
mists,  and  its  withered  leaves;  we  recognize  it  in  The 
City  in  the  Sea,  that  disordered  vision  of  a  citadel  of 
Death,  whose  "  Baby  Ion-like  walls  "  are  lit  by  no  rays 
from  heaven,  but  by  a  strange  light  from  the  "  lurid 
sea." 

Fine  as  such  conceptions  are,  they  are  remotely 
suggestive  of  a  theatrical  striving  after  scenic  effects; 
they  seem  to  rise  from  an  unwholesome  imagination. 
Shadowy,  fantastic,  distorted,  they  make  us  feel  that 
(to  borrow  Poe's  own  phrase)  in  the  spell  he  casts  over 
us  there  is — 


272     INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

"  Mucli  of  madness  and  more  of  sin, 
And  horror  the  soul  of  the  plot."  * 

Yet,  within  the  confines  of  the  grotesque  and  terrible, 
Poe  has  few  superiors.  He  rules  over  this  sombre, 
miasmic,  melancholy  region,  fall  of  waste  places,  of 
ruins,  and  of  stagnant  waters,  haunted  by  broken 
hopes  and  "  leaden-eyed  despairs." 

In  addition  to  Poe's  pictorial  power  and  closely 
associated  with  it  is  his  mastery  of  one  especial  mood 
— the  mood  of  a  passionate  and  hopeless  grief.  Much 
of  his  best  prose  and  poetry  consists  of  studied  and 
highly  artistic  variations  on  a  single  theme — sorrow 
for  the  death  of  a  young  and  beautiful  woman. 
The  Raven,  Annabel  Lee,  Ulalume,  and  For  Annie 
are  familiar  examples  of  this  in  his  poetry;  Ligeia, 
Berenice,  and  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher  in  his 
prose.  The  underlying  theme  is  variously  treated:  it 
may  take  form  as  a  simple  lyrical  expression  of  grief, 
as  in  Annabel  Lee,  or  all  the  wonderful  resources  of 
Poe's  pictorial  art  may  be  employed  to  enhance  it,  as 
in  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher;  but  in  either  case 
we  can  detect  the  fundamental  similarity. 

Finally,  Poe  was  endowed  with  still  another  gift, 
— a  gift  of  musical  utterance,  which  gives  to  his 
verse  a  charm  and  melody  of  its  own.  Shallow  in  its 
thought,  narrow  in  its  range,  almost  devoid  of  true 
human  sympathy,  Poe's  poetry  has  made  a  secure 
place  for  itself  largely  by  an  undefinable  fascination 
that  he  somehow  found  in  the  lingering  beauty  of  his 

*  Verses  in  Legeia. 


LITERATURE    IN   THE   SOUTH  273 

musical  utterance.  Critics  have  pointed  out  that  this 
especial  haunting  quality  of  Poe's  verse  is  mainly  due 
to  his  use  of  what  are  technically  known  as  the  refrain 
and  the  repetend,  the  first  a  familiar  poetic  device, 
the  second  not  wholly  unknown  before  Poe's  time. 
The  refrain  is  the  recurrence  at  stated  intervals  of  a 
particular  word  or  phrase;  the  repetend,  as  employed 
by  Poe,  is  the  immediate  repetition  of  a  line  in  a 
slightly  modified  form.  Stedman,  who  has  given 
much  attention  to  the  subject,  thinks  that  Poe  was 
aided  in  his  characteristic  employment  of  these  two 
metrical  ejects  by  certain  passages  in  Mrs.  Browning 
and  in  Coleridge.  At  all  events  there  is  an  originality 
as  well  as  beauty  in  Poe's  use  of  these  effects,  and  we 
feel  that  by  his  use  of  what  had  been  done  before  he 
virtually  created  a  new  thing.  Whatever  the  source 
of  his  music,  Poe's  verse  has  that  unmistakable  note 
of  personality  which  is  one  of  the  marks  of  a  true 
poet.  It  is  no  small  matter  to  have  added  anything 
to  the  technique  of  English  verse,  and  when  we  reflect 
upon  the  wild  power  of  Poe's  imagination,  upon  his 
lyrical  and  descriptive  gifts  and  marked  individuality 
of  tone,  we  must  assign  him,  in  spite  of  all  that  we 
miss  in  him,  a  place  among  our  poets  which  is  both 
distinctive  and  secure. 

Oar  final  estimate  of  Poe's  work  as  a  whole  will 
depend  upon  our  view  of  the  true  function  of  the 
artist.  He  believed  that  the  artist's  highest  work  and 
mission  was  to  give  pleasure;  he  defined  poetry  as 
"the  rhythmical  creation  of  beauty,"  and  declared 
that  "  unless  incidentally  "  it  had  "  no  concern  what- 


274     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

ever  with  duty  or  with  truth."  He  put  forth  all  the 
resources  of  his  genius:  his  intellectual  subtility,  his 
feeling  for  the  weird,  the  sublime,  and  the  grotesque, 
his  sense  of  color,  his  sense  of  sound, — he  manipulated 
all  these  as  a  skillful  craftsman  for  the  building  of 
works  of  wonder  and  beauty.  He  probably  did  all 
that  it  was  in  him  to  do.  If  we  are  satisfied  that  he 
was  right  in  his  aims  and  in  his  theory  of  art,  we  can 
ask  nothing  more.  But  if  we  believe  that  the  spiritual 
and  moral  are  vital  elements  in  the  greatest  art,  if  we 
think  that  conscience  and  truth  and  duty  have  their 
place  in  its  temple,  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  the 
limitations  of  Poe's  own  nature,  the  painful  in 
adequacy  of  the  man  himself,  have  left  ineffaceable 
marks  upon  the  quality  and  character  of  his  work, 
and  prevented  it  from  reaching  an  excellence  to  which 
it  might  otherwise  have  attained. 

STUDY  LIST 
POE 

1.  Poems.     "The  Eaven,"  "The  Bells,"  "The  City  in 
the    Sea,"  "  Ulalume,"  "Annabel  Lee,"   "The   Haunted 
Palace,"  "  Eulalie." 

2.  Tales.     "  The  Black  Cat,"  "  The  Fall  of  the  House  of 
Usher,"  "The  Gold  Bug,"  "William  Wilson,"  " Ligeia," 
"  The  Masque  of  the  Ked  Death." 

3.  Biography  and  Criticism.   The  best  life  of  Poe  is  the 
one  by  George  E.  Woodberry  in  the  American  Men  of 
Letters  Series.    The  edition  of  Poe's  works  edited  by  E.  H. 
Stoddard  contains  a  very  good  memoir  by  the  editor.     An 
edition,  which  will  probably  become  the  standard,  has  re- 


LITERATURE   IN   THE    SOUTH  275 

cently  been  published  under  the  editorship  of  G.  E.  Wood- 
berry  and  E.  C.  Stedman.  It  contains  a  Life  of  Poe  and  a 
critical  estimate  of  his  work.  See  also  Stedman's  Poets  of 
America;  Andrew  Lang's  Letters  to  Dead  Authors ;  and 
Edmund  Gosse's  Questions  at  Issue — the  article  "  Has 
America  produced  a  Poet  ?  " 


SIDNEY  LANIER 

Without  question,  Poe's  greatest  successor  in  poetry 
among  the  writers  of  the  South  is  Sidney  Lanier.  In 
surveying  the  scattered  and  difficult  beginnings  of 
Southern  literature  before  the  war,  Poe's  melancholy 
figure  stands  as  on  a  solitary  eminence;  in  any  gen 
eral  view  of  that  literature  during  the  years  of  civil 
contest  and  the  period  immediately  succeeding,  Lanier 
holds,  at  least  in  poetry,  a  correspondingly  important 
place. 

In  passing  from  the  earlier  to  the  later  writer  we 
cannot  but  be  impressed  by  the  sharp  contrast  between 
them  in  character,  in  life,  in  work,  and  in  ideals  of 
art.  It  is  true  that  Lanier's  life,  like  Poe's,  was  one 
of  struggle  and  hardship;  but  the  obstacles  which 
confronted  Lauier  were  not  of  his  own  making,  and 
his  whole  career  is  a  manly  warfare  with  adverse  con 
ditions,  fought  out  with  unfaltering  will  and  unswerv 
ing  purpose,  until  the  very  end.  Beset  by  difficulties, 
he  makes  us  feel  that  for  a  man  of  his  strong  and 
courageous  spirit  the  weakness  of  failure  is  impossible. 

Sidney  Lanier  was  born  at  Macon  in  1842,  in  that 
middle  region  of  Georgia  which  has  already  given  so 


276     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

much  to  literature.     His  father,  Robert  S.  Lanier, 
was  a  lawyer;  his  mother's  ancestors  were 
life  honorably  associated  with  the  history  of 

Virginia,  and  by  her  thrift  the  family 
lived  plainly  but  comfortably.  The  boy's  two  ruling 
passions,  music  and  literature,  showed  themselves  in 
his  earliest  years;  he  found  his  way  to  books  with  the 
instinct  of  the  born  reader,  but,  as  he  himself  tells  us, 
even  before  he  could  write  legibly  he  could  "  play 
passably  well  on  several  instruments."  At  fourteen 
he  entered  Oglethorpe  College,  a  neighboring  institu 
tion,  then  of  no  great  importance.  A  few  weeks  after 
his  graduation,  after  he  had  passed  four  years  in  what 
he  calls  "  the  uncongenial  atmosphere  of  a  farcical 
college,"  the  country  was  on  the  edge  of  the  Civil 
War.  Already  the  "  two  figures  of  music  and  of 
poetry  "  had  taken  their  place  in  his  heart,  but  in 
1861,  then  a  boy  of  nineteen,  he  enlisted  as  private 
in  the  Macon  Volunteers.  Throughout  the  entire 
struggle  he  served  bravely  and  faithfully;  he  bore 
his  part  in  the  battles  of  Seven  Pines,  Drewry's  Bluffs 
in  the  seven  days'  conflict  about  Richmond,  and  in  the 
bloody  battle  of  Malvern  Hill;  he  was  also  on  the 
signal  service,  and  detailed  for  duty  as  a  mounted 
scout.  Captured  and  imprisoned  for  five  months,  he 
found  himself  at  the  close  of  the  war  without  a  pro 
fession,  almost  without  money,  and  with  his  health 
seriously  impaired.  Yet  through  all  and  under  all  he 
had  kept  unchanged  his  boyish  devotion  to  the  two 
arts  .of  poetry  and  music.  Years  of  struggle  lay 
before  him.  At  one  time  he  tried  to  support  himself 


LITERATURE   IN  THE   SOUTH  277 

by  teaching ;  at  another  he  was  clerk  in  a  hotel ;  for  a 
time,  at  his  father's  wish,  he  studied  law.  In  18G7 
he  published  his  first  book,  Tiger  Lilies,  in  which  he 
records  many  of  his  experiences  in  the  war  and  many 
of  his  youthful  hopes  and  aspirations.  In  the  same 
year  he  married  Miss  Mary  Day,  entering  upon  a  life 
of  happiness  and  sympathy  the  high  influence  of 
which  is  hinted  at  in  some  of  his  most  beautiful  poems. 
But,  content  at  home,  at  the  very  outset  of  his  literary 
career  he  had  to  begin  that  long  and  depressing 
struggle  with  disease  which  ended  only  with  his  death. 
In  18G8  he  had  a  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs,  and  his 
work  henceforth  was  done,  with  many  intervals  of 
critical  illness,  with  the  fatal  shadow  hanging  over 
him.  Putting  aside  his  father's  offer  to  join  him  in 
practicing  law  at  Macon,  he  determined  to  devote 
whatever  time  and  health  were  left  him  to  carrying 
out  the  great  purpose  of  his  life.  Accordingly,  in 
1873,  he  settled  in  Baltimore,  having  obtained  the 
position  of  first  flute  in  the  Peabody  Symphony 
Orchestra.  From  this  time  he  remained  "  engaged 
always  in  a  threefold  struggle — for  health,  for  bread, 
and  for  a  literary  career."  The  odds  against  him 
were  heavy;  he  was  comparatively  unknown,  but, 
faithful  to  his  ideals,  he  persisted  in  writing  poetry  as 
he  thought  it  should  be,  without  regard  to  what  the 
public  might  like  or  demand.  After  some  disappoint 
ments,  Corn,  his  first  important  poem,  found  a  place 
in  Lippincott' 's  Magazine,  through  the  discrimination 
of  Mr.  John  Foster  Kirk,  at  that  time  its  editor. 
The  connection  proved  a  fortunate  one.  The  Sym- 


278     INTRODUCTION    TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

phony,  The  Psalm  of  the  West,  and  other  poems 
appeared  in  the  same  magazine,  and  in  1877  a  collec 
tion  of  his  verse  was  published  by  the  Lippincotts. 

Lanier  had  a  deep  conviction  of  the  worth  and  high 
seriousness  of  the  poet's  art.  He  asserted  that  Poe 
"  did  not  know  enough,"  and  felt  that  the  fullest  and 
most  perfect  art  must  rest  on  a  solid  basis  of  thought 
and  knowledge.  From  the  time  of  his  settlement  in 
Baltimore  he  had  therefore  set  himself  to  a  careful  and 
extensive  study  of  English  literature,  and  the  outcome 
of  this  study  was  first  a  number  of  lecture  courses 
on  literature  at  private  schools  and  elsewhere,  and 
finally  an  appointment  as  lecturer  at  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  Two  books,  The  Science  of  English 
Verse,  an  exposition  of  his  theory  of  the  principles  of 
versification,  and  The  English  Novel,  are  made  up  of 
lectures  originally  given  in  the  course  of  his  duties  at 
the  University.  Besides  his  teaching  and  his  music 
he  had  to  rely  upon  a  considerable  amount  of  miscel 
laneous  literary  work  in  the  hard  "  struggle  for 
bread."  He  wrote  a  descriptive  handbook  of  Florida 
in  the  interests  of  a  railroad  company,  and  towards 
the  close  of  his  life  edited,  for  young  readers,  Frois- 
sart  and  several  other  noble  old  classics.  Always  his 
high  ideals  were  before  him,  but,  as  he  says  in  one  of 
his  earlier  letters,  his  head  and  his  heart  were  often 
full  of  poems  which  the  "  dreadful  struggle  for 
bread"  would  not  give  him  time  to  put  on  paper.  In 
1881,  when  the  hard  task  of  getting  a  living  was 
growing  easier,  and  when  he  could  at  length  count  on 
some  long-looked-for  leisure,  to  give  his  genius  yet 


LITERATURE    IN   THE    SOUTH  279 

fuller  utterance,  the  disease  Avith  which  he  had  con 
tended  so  long  finally  struck  him  down.  Brave  to  the 
last,  he  wrote  Sunrise,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
his  poems,  when  consumed  with  fever  and  under  the 
immediate  expectation  of  the  end.  He  died  a  few 
months  later,  September  7,  1881,  and,  in  his  wife's 
words,  "  that  unfaltering  will  rendered  its  supreme 
submission  "  to  the  Will  of  the  Highest. 

Before  attempting  to  judge  of  Lanier's  work  as  a 
poet,  it  is  well  to  remember  the  disadvantages  under 
which  he  labored  and  the  difficulty  of  the 
task  he  set  himself.  We  must  think  of  work 
him  passing  from  a  small  country  college 
to  the  battle-field;  of  his  long  fight  with  sickness  and 
poverty;  of  his  burden  of  uncongenial  work,  his 
struggle  for  recognition,  his  intense  longing  in  the 
midst  of  restricted  surroundings  for  a  fuller  life  in  the 
quickening  atmosphere  of  art  and  culture.  We  must 
remember  how  he  wrote  to  Bayard  Taylor  in  1875 
that  his  life  had  been  "  a  mere  drought  and  famine  " 
for  the  want  of  such  an  atmosphere.  We  must 
remember,  further,  how  beyond  all  the  hindrances 
from  without  lay  the  inner  difficulty  of  perfecting 
new  theories  of  the  poetic  form,  and  of  expressing 
those  noble  ideals  of  art  which  he  strove  to  realize. 

The  higher  the  view  a  poet  takes  of  his  vocation, 
the  greater  the  demand  upon  his  powers;  the  loftier 
the  purpose,  the  greater  the  strength  required  for  its 
accomplishment.  To  Lanier,  with  his  single-minded 
consecration  of  his  efforts  to  a  great  ideal,  Browning's 
words  are  strikingly  applicable: 


280     INTRODUCTION"  TO  AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

"  That  low  man  seeks  a  little  tiling  to  do, 

Sees  it,  and  does  it; 

This  high  man,  with  a  great  thing  to  pursue, 
Dies  e'er  he  knows  it." 

So  far  as  his  poetic  form  is  concerned,  Lanier  came 
as  an  innovator,  and  was  brought  face  to  face  with 
those  difficulties  which  confront  all  who  seek  to  dis 
cover  and  apply  new  principles  of  composition.  He 
believed  that  there  was  an  underlying  analogy  between 
the  musical  and  the  poetic  form,  the  full  possibilities 
of  which  poets  had  as  yet  failed  to  appreciate,  and  he 
sought  to  carry  more  fully  into  poetry  certain  princi. 
pies  of  musical  composition.  He  had  not  time  to  fully 
work  out  his  ideas;  much  of  his  work  was  doubtless 
experimental ;  and  it  is  probably  for  this  reason  that 
we  find  in  it  an  eccentricity  of  expression  apparently 
due  to  his  imperfect  mastery  of  his  methods.  In 
itself  it  was  no  light  task  to  perfect  a  new  method  of 
poetic  expression ;  but  Lanier's  was  not  the  nature  to 
rest  content  with  the  mastery  of  any  novelty  of  form. 
To  him  the  poet  was  one  of  the  world's  spiritual 
helpers  and  guides,  and  art  the  revelation  through  a 
beautiful  body  of  a  beautiful  soul  in  the  work.  In 
this,  as  in  all  other  respects,  Poe  and  Lanier  are 
fundamentally  opposed.  To  the  one,  as  has  been 
said,  truth  and  goodness  were  incidental  and  unim 
portant  elements  in  art ;  to  the  other  they  were  the 
very  breath  of  its  life.  True  art,  in  Lanier's  eyes, 
is  "inexorably  moral."  "Unless  you  are  suffused 
Avith  truth,  wisdom,  goodness,  and  love,"  he  writes, 
"  abandon  the  hope  that  the  ages  will  accept  you  as 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  281 

an  artist."  The  ideal  of  Milton  or  of  Browning  is 
not  more  noble  than  Lanier's;  their  aims  are  no 
higher,  their  solemn  consecration  of  themselves  to 
serve  in  art's  high  temple  is  not  more  complete. 

When  we  thus  take  into  account  his  limitations  and 
the  largeness  of  his  aims,  it  does  not  surprise  us  that 
Lanier's  poetry  impresses  us  as  frequently  involved 
and  incomplete.  It  lacks  simplicity ;  there  is  often  a 
sense  of  strain  and  effort,  a  painful  absence  of  that 
ease  which  comes  with  the  highest  powers.  Yet  with 
all  difficulties  of  utterance  there  is  in  it  an  inspiring 
loftiness  of  thought,  a  deep  sympathy  with  the  life  of 
nature,  and  at  times  a  wonderful  lyrical  and  poetic 
beauty.  It  has,  moreover,  that  accent  of  originality 
which  among  our  American  poets  is  rare  indeed.  In 
his  close  fellowship  with  nature,  as  in  the  Hymns  of 
the  Marshes,  he  seems  to  merge  himself  in  the  great 
sum  of  her  life.  lie  has  given  us  the  glow  and  quiet 
of  the  Southern  landscape,  as  in  the  Tampa  Robins, 
or  A  Florida  Sunday.  A  true  patriotic  feeling  for 
the  greatness  of  our  country,  a  sense  of  the  meaning 
of  its  past  and  of  the  possibilities  of  its  future,  is 
shown  in  his  Psalm  of  the  West.  lie  can  speak  out 
strongly  and  boldly  too,  as  in  The  Symphony,  against 
that  taint  of  business  dishonesty  and  those  too-material 
aims  which  are  corrupting  the  life  of  onr  Republic. 
Few  poets  have  dealt  with  this  side  of  our  modern  life 
at  once  so  truthfully  and  so  poetically;  few  have 
shown  a  deeper  sympathy  with  the  cramped  lives  of 
the  poor,  shut  in  too  often  from  those 


282     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

"Outside  leagues  of  liberty, 
Where  Art,  sweet  lark,  translates  the  sky 
Into  a  heavenly  melody." 

The  true  poet  of  the  South,  lie  is  the  poet  of  a 
chivalrous  reverence  for  women ;  the  poet  of  all  high 
emotions.  He  it  was  Avho  sang 

"  When  life's  all  love,  'tis  life  :  aught  else, 
'tis  naught." 

He  is  a  foe  to  the  hard  intellect  unsanctified  by  love 
and  tenderness ;  a  foe  to  the  mercenary  and  the  base. 
Under  the  open  sky,  by  the  corn-iield,  or  in  the 
clover  of  the  Pennsylvania  meadows,  he  protests 
against  the  hardness,  the  sharpness,  the  mercantile 
spirit,  that  debases  our  American  life.  To  love  of 
nature,  love  of  country,  and  love  of  man  Lanier  adds 
a  power  of  poetic  expression  which  at  times  is  both 
fine  and  true.  As  has  been  said,  he  did  not  reach  the 
limit  of  his  powers  or  the  full  mastery  of  his  art,  yet 
he  has  shown  us  in  his  Revenge  of  Hamisli  that  he 
could  rival  the  best  of  our  poets  in  the  ballad-form; 
and  in  such  lyrics  as  the  songs  in  The  Jacquerie,  My 
Springs,  and  in  The  Song  of  the  Chattahoochee  he  has 
given  us  single  poems  worthy  to  endure.  With  all  its 
shortcomings,  Lanier's  work  is  a  noble  and  beautiful 
addition  to  American  poetry,  the  full  worth  of  which 
is  not  yet  generally  recognized,  and  there  is  none 
among  all  our  poets  whose  life  is  more  stainless,  more 
lofty,  and  more  inspiring.  He  unites  the  Southern 
warmth  to  the  Northern  intellect,  and  if  the  coming 
writers  of  the  great  region  to  which  lie  belongs  bring 


LITERATURE   IN   THE   SOUTH  283 

to  their  work  an  equal  self-cousecration  to  high  ideals; 
if  they  strive,  as  he  did,  to  strengthen  the  full 
Southern  nature  with  the  rigid  discipline  of  thought 
and  knowledge, — we  may  have  a  work  accomplished 
which  this  poet  of  the  new  South  left  but  begun ;  we 
shall  have  a  literature  more  glowing,  more  passionate, 
and  perhaps  even  more  enduring  than  that  of  the  New 
England  school. 

STUDY   LIST 
LANIER 

1.  Poems.     "The  Song  of  the  Chattahoochee,"  "  Tampa 
Robins,"    "Revenge   of   Hamish,"  "My   Springs,"    "The 
Ship  of  Earth,1'  "  The  Psalm  of  the  West,"  "Song  for  'The 
Jacquerie':"    "  The   hound   ivas   cuffed,    the  hound  was 
kicked";   "Corn." 

2.  Biography  and  Criticism.     Lanier,  by  Wm.  Malone 
Baskervill    (in   the    series    entitled    "  Southern    Writers," 
published   by  Barbee  &  Smith,  Nashville)  ;    Memorial,  by 
Wm.  Hayes  Ward,  prefixed  to  edition  of  Lanier's  Poems, 
edited  by  his  wife  ;    Article  by  Merrill  E.  Gates,    in  the 
Presbyterian  Review,  vol.  viii.  p.  669. 


CHAPTER  IV 


WE  must  now  return  to  that  middle  region  of  our 
country  in  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  higher  and 
more  enduring  literature  of  the  Republic  had  its 
beginning.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
raneousP°  leading  writers  of  this  section,  Irving, 
rise  of  Cooper,  Bryant,  and  their  associates,  who 

in  the  dif-  were  the  true  founders  of  our  national 
ferent  sec-  literature,  did  not  end  their  work  until 
about  the  middle  of  the  century.  Cooper, 
who  died  in  1851,  was  the  first  of  this  great  triumvirate 
to  depart.  Bryant,  who  lived  on,  the  patriarch  of 
American  letters,  until  1878,  was  the  last.  These 
Middle  States  pioneers  thus  lived  to  see  the  sudden 
appearance  of  the  yet  greater  school  of  writers  in  Kew 
England,  and  the  fight  against  adverse  conditions 
made  by  the  rising  literature  of  the  South. 

It  helps  us  to  take  a  broad  view  of  the  literary  his 
tory  of  our  nation  as  a  whole  when  we  reflect  that 
Cooper  wrote  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after 
the  appearance  of  Longfellow's  first  published  book 
of  poems  (1826),  and  that  Bryant  lived  fourteen  years 

284 


THE   LATER   WRITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE    STATES   285 

after  the  death  of  Hawthorne,  and  no  less  than  twenty- 
nine  years  after  that  of  Poe.  A  careful  study  of 
chronology  will  make  it  plain  that,  although  they 
belonged  to  an  earlier  generation  than  that  of  Emerson 
or  of  Poe,  these  pioneer  writers  of  the  Middle  States 
and  the  literary  leaders  of  New  England  and  the  South 
yet  worked  for  a  considerable  period  side  by  side.  It 
is  all  the  more  necessary  for  us  to  remind  ourselves  of 
this,  because  the  method  of  study  which  we  have  fol 
lowed  tends  to  create  a  different  impression  in  our 
minds. 

In  order  to  show  the  independent  life  and  growth 
of  literature  during  the  present  century  in  these 
different  sections  of  our  country  we  have  been  obliged 
to  consider  successively  the  literature  of  the  Middle 
States,  New  England,  and  the  South.  But  litera 
ture  did  not  perish  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
when  it  triumphantly  asserted  itself  in  New  Eng 
land,  and  its  advance  in  New  England  was  largely 
contemporaneous  with  its  contest  against  many  diffi 
culties  in  Virginia  and  the  South.  In  time  yet 
another  literature  was  added  to  that  of  the  three  older 
sections — the  literature  of  the  growing  West ;  and  all 
these  have  developed  separately,  yet  connected  by  those 
underlying  bonds  which  render  them  in  many  ways 
so  truly  one.  So  we  have  at  least  four  sections,  each 
having  its  distinct  literature  and  its  distinct  intel 
lectual  life,  and  each  having  its  share  in  the  wider  and 
more  varied  movement  of  American  literature  as  a 
whole.  As  we  thus  survey  the  whole  field  of  our 
literary  activity,  during  a  period  of  some  twenty  or 


286      INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

thirty  years  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  we  see 
New  England  first  at  the  height  of  its  power,  then 
gradually  losing  to  some  extent  its  leading  place;  we 
see  New  York  distanced,  yet  continuing  to  produce 
work  of  a  high  order;  we  see  the  South,  and  finally 
the  West,  pressing  forward  and  widening  the  area  of 
our  literary  production. 

In  the  middle  section  the  early  leaders  were  not 
without  successors.  With  the  possible  exception  of 
Walt  Whitman,  some  of  these  later  men  were  equal  to 
any  one  of  the  three  great  writers  who  preceded  them, 
yet  they  contiimed,  in  their  own  way,  the  work  of 
those  whose  labors  were  nearly  done.  Pennsylvania 
gave  four  poets,  born  in  "  four  successive  years  " 
T.  BUCHANAN  HEAD  (1822-1872),  GEORGE  HENKY 
BOKER  (1823-1890),  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 
(1824-  ),  and  BAYARD  TAYLOR  (1825-1878). 

Eead,  a  landscape-painter,  who  passed  much  of  his 
life  abroad,  composed,  besides  many  larger 
*0        ^  works,  some  really  notable  short  poems. 


His  Sheridan's  Bide  is  among  the  most 
popular  of  our  war-poems,  but  two  lyrics,  Drifting 
and  The  Closing  Scene,  have  a  far  higher  poetic 
beauty.  The  last-named  poem,  with  its  subdued  au 
tumnal  tone,  has  a  grace  and  finish  which  remind  us 
of  the  refined  and  delicate  verse  of  Collins  or  of  Gray. 
Boker  was  a  Philadelphiau,  long  prominently 

identified  with  its  literary  life.     He  wrote 
George 

Henry  creditable  sonnets  and  some  good  lyrics;  a 

Boker.  number  of  his  poems  were  inspired  by  the 

Civil  War.     He  is  also  favorably  known  by  his  plays. 


TUP:    LATER   WRITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE    STATES   287 

His  work  as  dramatist  places  him  with  the  very  few 
recent  English  poets  who  have  succeeded  in  producing 
dramas  which  while  not  deficient  in  poetic  excellence 
yet  meet  the  actual  requirements  of  stage  repre 
sentation. 

Lehmd,  also  a  Philadelphia!),  owes  his  popularity 

chiellv  to  the  Hans  Breitman  Ballads,  a 

C    G 
collection   of    amusin      verses    of    rather 


transient  interest,   in  the  dialect  of   the 
Pennsylvania  Dutch. 

Bayard  Taylor,  the  youngest  of  this  group,  is  in 
many  ways  the  most  notable.     He  was  born 
in  1825,  in  Chester  County,  a  region  iu 


the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia,  of  thriv 
ing  farms  with  comfortable  farm-houses  solidly  built 
of  gray  stone,  and  of  capacious  barns.  The  district 
had  been  early  settled  by  the  English  Quakers,  and 
its  people,  with  the  thrift,  simplicity,  and  inflexible 
uprightness  of  the  Quaker,  were  not  free  from  the 
rigidity  and  the  narrowness  in  matters  of  art  which 
characterize  the  members  of  that  sect.  '  *  They  hung 
no  pictures  on  their  blank  walls,  nor  listened  to  the 
touches  of  sweet  harmony.  Xo  line  of  beauty  ever 
disturbed  the  peace  and  the  decorum  of  their  sober 
meeting-houses.  '  '  *  Taylor  came  of  a  long  line  of 
Quaker  ancestry,  but  he  was  also  partly  German  by 
descent.  He  himself  thought  that  it  was  this  foreign 
element  in  his  inheritance,  this  "  strain  of  distant  and 
dead  generations,"  that  asserted  itself  in  him,  filling 

*  Smyth's  Life  of  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  7.    American  Men  of 
Letters  Series. 


288     INTRODUCTION  TO   AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

him  with  warmer  life  and  strange  longings,  and  mak 
ing  him  impatient  even  from  his  boyhood  of  the 
narrow  horizon  and  bare  lives  of  those  about  him. 
From  whatever  cause,  in  the  midst  of  the  ordered 
quiet  and  monotonous  toil  of  a  provincial  community, 
this  Quaker  farmer's  boy  was  eager  to  know  and  to 
see;  impatient  to  grasp  all  that  life  had  to  give. 
When  he  was  but  ten  years  old  the  longing  to  visit 
foreign  lands  had  already  taken  possession  of  him ;  by 
the  time  he  was  nineteen  this  longing  had  become  a 
definite  purpose.  Through  some  newspaper  verses  he 
got  a  foothold  in  literary  circles,  and  he  became 
further  known  by  the  publication  in  18-44  of  Ximena, 
a  small  book  of  poems.  Determined  to  see  Europe, 
he  succeeded,  probably  more  by  his  energy  than 
because  of  these  literary  ventures,  in  inducing  several 
newspaper  editors  to  engage  him  to  write  them  letters 
from  abroad.  Some  of  them  paid  him  in  advance, 
and  with  only  about  one  hundred  and  forty  dollars 
he  started  on  his  tour.  It  was  a  daring  venture;  it 
meant  privation  and  self-denial,  but  in  Taylor's  case 
it  meant  also  sudden  success  and  fame.  He  was  abroad 
two  years,  travelling  on  foot  and  paying  his  way  by 
his  letters  to  the  Neio  York  Tribune  and  other  papers, 
— a  crude,  courageous,  eager-hearted  couiitry-bo}7, 
'thrown  on  his  own  resources,  and  educating  himself 
by  all  that  he  felt  and  saw  and  all  that  he  overcame. 
The  literary  outcome  of  this  astonishing  trip  was  his 
Views  Afoot,  or  Europe  seen  with  Knapsack  and  Staff 
(1846),  the  first  of  his  many  books  of  travel,  and  the 
beginning  also  of  his  literary  success.  The  book  tells 


THE    LATER   WRITERS   OF   THE   MIDDLE    STATES   289 

the  story  of  Taylor's  adventurous  wanderings  with 
simplicity  and  directness.  It  shows  the  quick  power 
of  the  reporter  to  observe,  and  of  the  poet  to  appre 
ciate;  but,  more  than  all,  it  is  an  object-lesson  in  what 
can  be  accomplished  by  sheer  pluck  and  strength  of 
will.  The  public  were  quick  to  see  its  merits,  and  six 
editions  were  sold  in  the  first  year. 

In  1847  Taylor  settled  in  New  York,  joining  that 
circle  of  literati  in  which  Bryant,  Willis,  and  Halleck 
were  the  ruling  spirits,  and  thus  taking  his  place  in 
the  literary  succession.  Cooper  still  lived  in  his  home 
near  Otsego  Lake,  and  Irving  at  Sunnyside  was  not 
far  from  the  metropolis.  Taylor's  life  during  the  years 
that  followed  was  one  of  restless  and  varied  activity, 
full  of  tireless  labor  and  keen  enjoyments.  He  toiled 
at  journalism;  he  became  widely  and  favorably 
known  as  a  popular  lecturer;  he  wrote  books  of  travel, 
novels,  and  poems.  "  His  intellect,"  says  Professor 
Smyth,  "  was  of  that  activity  that  it  gave  him  trouble 
not  to  work."*  But  from  time  to  time  he  would 
vanish  from  out  the  circle  of  these  familiar  interests, 
and  disappear  into  the  strange  life  of  other  lands. 
In  1851  he  made  a  memorable  journey  to  the  East, 
pushing  his  way  far  up  the  Nile  into  regions  then 
but  little  known,  journeying,  a  bronzed  and  bearded 
traveller,  through  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Asia  Minor. 
"  I  have  a  Southern  soul,  it  seems,"  he  wrote  in  his 
Diary,  "  for  I  feel  strongest  and  happiest  where  the 
sun  can  blaze  upon  me. ' '  f  He  was  an  ideal  traveller, 

*  Sniytli's  Life  of  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  184. 
f  Quoted  in  Smyth's  Life  of  Taylor,  p.  90. 


290     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

and  in  the  course  of  his  roving  life  he  visited  India, 
China,  Japan,  and  Arabia,  and  made  his  way  through 
Norway  and  Lapland  into  the  regions  of  the  far  North. 
His  energies  were  dissipated  on  many  ambitions.  As 
he  grew  older,  he  aspired,  as  Walter  Scott  had  done, 
to  found  a  great  home  for  his  family.  He  built  a 
large  house  at  "  Cedar  croft,"  in  his  native  Chester 
County,  only,  like  Scott,  to  burden  himself  with  debt. 
Under  all  his  varied  interests,  his  deepest  wish  was 
to  prove  himself  a  great  poet;  but  although  he  pub 
lished  many  poems,  to  the  public  he  was  pre-eminently 
the  explorer,  lecturer,  and  writer  of  travels.  Some  of 
his  most  ambitious  poetry  was  produced  during  his 
later  years.  His  translation  of  Goethe's  Faust  (1870- 
1871)  has  become  a  classic,  and  the  notes  and  com 
ments  are  a  monument  to  his  minute  and  scholarly 
study  of  the  great  German  poet.  This  work  alone 
would  entitle  Taylor  to  be  long  remembered.  Two 
poems  of  this  period,  The  Prophet  (1874)  and  Prince 
Deukdlion  (1878),  though  among  the  longest  and  most 
ambitious  of  Taylor's  poetical  compositions,  have 
added  little  to  his  reputation.  The  last  great  project 
of  his  life  was  to  write  a  life  of  Goethe,  a  task  for 
which  he  was  singularly  fitted,  and  his  appointment  in 
1877  as  minister  to  Berlin  seemed  to  open  the  way  for 
the  carrying  out  of  this  undertaking.  But  when 
leisure  and  opportunity  seemed  thus  at  last  at  his 
command,  his  splendid  health,  which  had  carried  him 
buoyantly  through  a  lifetime  of  toils  and  hardships, 
at  length  deserted  him,  and  he  died  at  Berlin,  Decem 
ber  15,  1878,  leaving  his  work  undone. 


THE    LATER    WRITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE   STATES   291 

Taylor  impresses  us  as  a  man  who  would  probably 
hare  reached  a  yet  higher  level  in  literature  if  he  had 

possessed  a  greater  singleness  of  aim.    His 

T     Taylor's 
temperament    was    inquiring,    tree,    and 


ardent;  from  the  narrowness  of  provincial 
life  he  came  early  into  contact  with  half  the  civiliza 
tions  of  the  world.  Most  of  his  life  was  given  to  an 
endeavor  to  enlarge  his  range  of  experience,  and  to 
the  receiving  of  those  new  impressions  which  crowded 
in  on  him  from  every  side.  Successful  in  many  fields, 
overburdened  by  the  pressure  of  work,  and  distracted 
by  the  variety  of  his  objects,  we  need  not  wonder  that 
he  did  not  reach  in  poetry  that  full  measure  of  success 
for  which  he  longed.  "  His  life,"  says  Mr.  Stedman, 
"  was  consecrated  to  poetry,  yet  not  devoted  to  it"  ;  * 
but  the  highest  rewards  of  the  poet  may  not  be  thus 
lightly  won.  Taylor  himself  seems  to  have  realized  that 
he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  turned  aside  too  often 
from  his  highest  calling,  for  he  writes  regretfully, 

"  And  still  some  cheaper  service  claims 
The  will  that  leaps  to  loftier  call  ; 
Some  cloud  is  cast  on  splendid  aims, 

On  power  achieved  some  common  thrall."  f 

Whatever  Taylor  might  have  done  in  poetry  under 
other  conditions,  or  if  his  life  had  been  prolonged,  he 
has  undoubtedly  done  enough  to  win  for  himself  a 
highly  creditable  standing  among  our  poets  of  the 
second  rank.  As  a  rule,  his  verse,  while  easy  and 
melodious,  lacks  concentration  and  individuality. 
We  meet  nothing  that  jars  upon  our  ear  or  offends 
our  taste,  but  we  find  little  that  arrests  our  attention 

*  Poets  of  America,  p.  409.          f  Poems  :  Implora  Pace. 


292     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

or  that  remains  with  us  long  after  the  book  is  closed. 
Yet  certain  poems  of  Taylor's  have  in  full  measure 
that  indefinable  poetic  quality  which  we  often  miss. 
The  fruits  of  his  later  wanderings,  the  Poems  of  the 
Orient,  are  full  of  beauty.  The  famous  Bedouin  Song 
in  this  series  ranks  with  the  best  of  our  lyrics,  and 
Nubia  is  among  the  masterpieces  of  sonnet  literature. 
The  Song  of  the  Camp  and  other  shorter  poems  show 
that  Taylor  at  his  best  was  a  true  poet;  indeed  it  is 
probable  that  the  mass  of  his  inferior  work  has  done 
much  to  obscure  his  real  merit  and  to  prevent  his  re 
ceiving  his  due.  Among  the  longer  works,  Lars,  a 
Pastoral  of  Norway,  may  be  mentioned  as  a  most 
charming  idyllic  poem,  worthy  to  be  placed  beside 
Evangeline.  In  spite  of  the  immense  popularity  that 
Taylor's  travels  enjoyed  in  their  day,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  his  best  novel,  T/te  Story  of  Kennet,  deals 
truthfully  with  a  phase  of  Pennsylvania  life  which  has 
had  but  little  recognition  from  the  story-writer,  it  is 
by  his  best  work  in  poetry  that  Taylor  is  likely  to  be 
longest  remembered. 

Besides  the  group  of  poets  just  spoken  of,  the  Mid 
dle    States   produced    during   this  period 
Prose-writ-  x     . 

ing  and  some  distinguished  scholars  and  prose- 
scholar-  writers.  Among  the  earliest  of  these  was 
ship. 

HENRY  REED  (1808-1854),  who  was  lost 
in  the  wreck  of  the  ocean  steamer  Arctic,  and  who  held 
a  professorship  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  from 
Henry  1835  until  his  untimely  death.  Professor 

Reed  was  a  sympathetic  and  enthusiastic 
student  oi  English  literature;  his  sense  of  what  was 


THE   LATER   WRITERS  OF   THE   MIDDLE   STATES   293 

excellent  in  poetry  was  quick  and  delicate,  and  lie  did 
much  to  enlarge  and  reline  our  literary  appreciation, 
lie  was  among  the  first,  if  not  actually  the  first,  of 
American  critics  to  appreciate  the  charm  of  Words 
worth's  poetry,  and  his  friendship  with  hoth  Words 
worth  and  Coleridge  made  him  peculiarly  fitted  to 
interpret  the  work  of  these  poets  and  their  theory  of 
composition.  His  edition  of  Wordsworth,  which  first 
appeared  in  1837,  did  much  to  make  the  poet  better 
known  to  American  readers.  He  also  edited  the 
poems  of  Gray,  and  several  other  standard  English 
works.  After  Reed's  death  several  of  his  courses  of 
lectures  on  literary  subjects  were  published  under  the 
supervision  of  his  brother. 

Our  present  plan  of  study  excludes  the  criticism  of 
living  writers,  but  two  scholars  of  this  middle  region, 
although  still  in  the  fullness  of  their  powers,  cannot 
be  passed  over  altogether  without  mention.  HENRY 
C.  LEA  (b.  1825),  a  Philadelphia!!,  is  the  author  of 
A  History  of  the  Inquisition  during  the  Middle  Ages 
(1888),  and  of  other  mediaeval  studies.  HORACE 
HOWARD  FURXESS  (b.  1833),  also  a  Philadelphian, 
hoi ds  aprominent  place  among  Shakespearean  students. 
His  Variorum  Edition  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  which  has 
been  in  course  of  publication  since  1870,  is  a  splendid 
monument  to  American  scholarship,  and  is  generally 
accepted  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  as  the  best 
planned  and  most  complete  edition  of  England's  great 
est  poet.  Side  by  side  with  the  work  of  Dr.  Furness 
we  may  place  that  of  THOMAS  K.  LOUXSBURY 
(b.  Xew  York,  1838),  whose  scholarly  study  of  Chaucer 


294     INTRODUCTION   TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

is  a  noteworthy  addition  to  the  literature  which  has 
gathered  around  Shakespeare's  great  predecessors  in 
English  poetry. 

Among   these   Middle   States   writers   is  one  who 
claims  exemption  from  all  ordinary  standards,  a  man 

whom  it  is  equally  impossible  to  classify  or 
Whitman.  ^°  Pu^  aside — WALT  WHITMAN,  the  most 

unique  and  puzzling  figure  in  American 
letters.  Somehow  there  suddenly  appeared  out  of  the 
business  activity  and  dead-level  prosperity  of  this 
equable  middle  region  a  man  who  is  believed  by  his 
admirers  to  be  the  greatest  poet,  the  most  genuine 
voice,  of  our  democracy.  He  had,  as  Bayard  Taylor 
thought,  "a  colossal  egotism."  He  aspired  to 
' '  define  America,  her  athletic  democracy  ' '  to  foreign 
lands,  to  teacli  her  what  she  veritably  is  and  what  she 
may  become.  He  declared  that  these  new  States 
needed  a  new  poetry,  untainted  by  the  feudalism  and 
the  worn-out  beliefs  inseparable  from  the  literatures 
of  Europe;  lie  abandoned  the  established  forms  and 
settled  traditions  of  his  art,  and  spoke  out  his  message 
in  an  irregular,  half-rhythmical  chant  according  to  a 
fashion  of  his  own,  unrestrained,  audacious,  vocifer 
ous,  demanding  the  attention  and  calmly  challenging 
the  judgment  of  the  world.  In  his  eyes  his  poetic 
contemporaries  were  weaklings  and  sentimentalists. 
"  Do  you  call  these  genteel  little  creatures  American 
poets?"  he  asks.*  He  longs  for  a  poetry  as  large, 
strong-limbed,  free,  elemental,  and  democratic  as  the 
genius  of  our  Republic. 

*  Democratic  Vistas. 


THE   LATER   WKITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE   STATES   295 

In  his  first  poem  lie  thus  triumphantly  announces 
his  own  arrival : 

"  No  dolce  effectuoso  I; 

Bearded,  sunburnt,  gray-neck'd,  forbidding,  I  have  arrived, 
To  be  wrestled  with  as  I  pass  for  the  solid  prizes  of  the  uni 
verse." 

He  belongs  to  no  school  and  bows  to  no  precedents; 
he  is  the  declared  enemy  to  all  conventions: 

"  I  wear  ray  hat  as  I  please,  indoors  or  out." 
We  cannot  account  for  him,  or  tell  from  whence  he 
comes;  we  only  know  that  in  some  way  he  appears, — 
"  untamed,"  as  he  asserts,  and  "  untranslatable," — 
to  sound  his  "  barbaric  yawp  over  the  roofs  of  the 
world."  It  is  now  nearly  half  a  century  since  Whit 
man  made  his  startling,  not  to  say  theatrical,  en 
trance,  yet  the  man  and  his  work  remain  to  be 
"  wrestled  with."  There  has  grown  up  about  him  an 
ever-increasing  mass  of  controversy  and  criticism. 
In  this  country  John  Burroughs  has  hailed  him  as 
the  poet-prophet  of  our  age  and  country;  in  England 
his  work  has  been  received  with  enthusiasm  by  such 
cultured  and  fastidious  critics  as  William  Michael 
Rossetti  and  John  Addington  Symonds.  He  has  had 
neglect,  ridicule,  and  abuse;  but  the  circle  of  his 
devotees,  though  small,  is  probably  increasing.  To 
the  vast  body  of  readers  his  work  is  still  repellent, 
bewildering,  or  altogether  unknown.  His  poetry 
defies  all  ordinary  critical  tests,  and  the  legitimate 
differences  of  opinion  in  regard  to  it  are  still  so  great 
that  his  ultimate  place  in  our  literature  remains 
uncertain. 


296     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

It  certainly  seems  as  though  Whitman  were  fitted 
in  one  respect  to  be  the  poet  of  our  people.     Xone  of 
our   great   writers   lived    in   such  a  free, 
life>  intimate,  and  daily  relationship  with  the 

•  laborers  in  the  factory,  the  shop,  or  the 
field ;  none  came  in  a  more  simple  or  natural  contact 
with  the  average  man.  Whitman  belonged  to  the 
people,  not  merely  through  sympathy,  but  by  his  birth 
and  habit  of  life.  He  was  born  at  West  Hills,  Long 
Island,  in  1819.  He  came  of  sound  but  humble 
ancestry,  partly  English  and  partly  Dutch.  His 
father,  a  carpenter  by  trade,  removed  to  Brooklyn 
while  Whitman  was  yet  a  child,  and  there  the  boy 
attended  the  public  school  until  he  was  thirteen.  He 
learned  type-setting,  and  for  twelve  years  of  his  young 
manhood  worked  as  a  compositor  in  New  York.  His 
eager,  inquiring  contact  with  the  varied  life  of  a  great 
city  during  this  time  was  his  real  education.  Xe\v 
York  was  his  university.  With  a  marvellous  power 
of  observation  and  sympathy  he  explored  and  absorbed 
the  life  which  surged  about  him.  "  He  went  on  equal 
terms  with  every  one,"  says  his  biographer;  "  he  liked 
them  and  they  him,  and  he  knew  them  far  better  than 
they  knew  themselves."  *  He  thus  realized  the  idea 
of  human  friendliness  which  he  suggests  in  one  of  his 
poems: 

"  Stranger,  if  you  passing  meet  me  and  desire  to  speak  to  me, 

why  should  you  not  speak  to  rne  ? 
And  why  should  I  not  speak  to  you?" 

*  Bucke's  Life  of  Whitman,  p.  19. 


THE   LATKIl    WHITE  US   OF   THE   MIDDLE   STATES   297 

To  this  knowledge  of  life  in  New  York  a  yet  wider 
experience  was  added.  In  1849  he  started  on  a 
leisurely  progress  through  the  Southern,  Western,  and 
Middle  States.  lie  was  a  part  of  much  of  the  life  he 
saw,  for  from  time  to  time  he  settled  down  and  earned 
enough  money  to  enable  him  to  continue  his  journey. 
On  his  return  to  Brooklyn  he  was  newspaper  editor 
and  house-builder,  but  he  worked  merely  to  provide 
for  his  daily  needs;  his  real  ambition  was  to  speak  out 
what  was  in  him.  His  force  accordingly  went  into  the 
writing  of  his  first  poem,  Leaves  of  Grass,  which 
appeared  in  1855.  The  book,  which  was  slow  in 
gaining  any  notice,  was  helped  forward  by  a  very 
favorable  opinion  from  Emerson. 

Whitman  had  now  studied  our  democracy  in  all  the 
daily  avocations  of  peace;  his  next  great  experience 
of  it  came  through  our  Civil  War.  His  brother,  who 
was  in  the  Federal  army,  was  wounded  at  the  opening 
of  the  struggle,  and  Whitman  left  Brooklyn  to  attend 
him.  After  some  experiences  at  the  front,  Whitman 
was  nurse  for  several  years  in  the  army  hospitals  at 
Washington,  injuring  his  magnificent  health  by  his 
devotion.  The  war  and  Whitman's  experiences  in  it 
were  the  occasion  of  several  books.  Drum- Taps,  which 
contains  some  of  his  best  poetry,  appeared  in  1865, 
and  his  Memoranda  During  the  War  ten  years  later. 
After  the  close  of  the  war  Whitman  remained  at 
Washington  until  1873,  as  clerk  in  one  of  the  Govern 
ment  offices,  but  was  stricken  with  paralysis  in  that 
year  and  compelled  to  give  up  his  position.  A  long 
period  of  invalidism  and  poverty  followed,  during 


298     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

which  he  bore  himself  with  a  cheerful  serenity, 
wonderful  in  a  man  who  had  delighted  in  the  abun 
dant  energy  of  a  superb  physique.  In  1874  he  moved 
to  Camden,  New  Jersey,  and  there  lived  simply  and 
obscurely  until  his  death  in  1892. 

There  was  about  Whitman  something  robust,  large, 
and  primitive.  His  early  education  was  in- 
work.  adequate,  and  he  was  not  a  wide  reader  at 

any  time;  but  he  loved  and  knew  men  and 
nature,  and  lived  in  a  wonderful  companionship  with 
them.  Intensely  individual  by  conviction  as  well  as 
by  his  disposition,  he  was  comparatively  shut  off  from 
that  life  which  comes  to  us  through  books.  Whatever 
the  defects  of  his  work,  we  feel  back  of  it,  if  we  read 
it  not  in  parts  but  as  a  whole,  the  imperative  pressure 
of  a  strong  if  often  wilfully  eccentric  personality. 
Confused,  incoherent,  full  of  offenses  against  taste  and 
art,  with  outlandish  words,  slang,  and  elementary 
French  phrases  floating  as  on  a  weltering  sea  of 
words,  we  yet  feel  under  all  an  indefinable  sense  of 
personal  power. 

Whitman   feels   himself,   and   in  his   own  strange 

fashion  makes  us  feel,  the  greatness  and  wonder  of 

America.     "  These  United    States  them- 


life  V16W  °  selves  are  essentially  the  greatest  poem," 
he  wrote  in  his  preface  to  Leaves  of  Grass. 
Their  "  crowning  glory,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  is  to  be 
spiritual  and  heroic.  '  '  *  Such  a  realization  of  what  we 
are  and  may  be  is  unfortunately  rare  in  us  and  in  our 

*  A  Backward  Glance  o'er  Travelled  Roads. 


THE    LATER    WRITERS   OF   THE   MIDDLE   STATES   299 

literature.  This  feeling  for  our  country,  the  greatest 
political  expression  of  democracy,  was  nearly  related 
to  Whitman's  intense  belief  in  the  importance  of  the 
individual,  lie  aimed  to  be  the  poet  of  the  "  average 
man  ";  he  believed  that  the  essence  of  life  consists  in 
the  free  development  of  each  individual.  But  while 
he  insists  on  the  sacredness  of  the  individual,  he  em 
phasizes  with  equal  force  the  sacredness  of  those  bonds 
which  should  bind  all  individuals  together.  Perhaps 
more  than  anything  else,  he  is  the  poet  of  that  great 
ideal  of  human  brotherhood  which  lies  at  the  base  of 
a  true  democracy.  It  is  his  aim  to  sing  "  the  song  of 
companionship,"  to  write  "  the  evangel  poem  of  com 
rades."  lie  declares  that  "  the  main  purpose  of  these 
States  is  to  foimd  a  superb  friendship,"  up  to  this 
time  "  latent  in  all  men." 

How  far  Whitman  succeeded  in  expressing  these 
and  other  large  conceptions  in  an  artistic  form  is  yet 
an  open  question.     There  is  no  doubt  that 
at  times  he  is  exceedingly  felicitous  in  his    form 
use  of  words,  and  that  many  passages  in 
his  poems  unite  a  remarkable   beauty  with  a  subtle 
rhythmical  charm.     On  the  other  hand,  if  we  call  the 
great  bulk  of  his  work  poetry,  it  must  be  not  merely 
by  enlarging  the  borders  of  poetic  art,  but  by  recon 
structing  our  fundamental  conceptions  of  the  nature 
of  poetry  itself.     Two  examples  of  his  peculiar  manner 
may  be  given :  one,  of  his  favorite  method  of  catalogu 
ing  places  or  objects  in  an  interminable  succession ; 
the  other,  of  the  purely  prosaic  character  of  his  ordi- 


300     INTRODUCTION"  TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

nary  phraseology.  In  a  passage  on  the  Broad- Axe  he 
tells  us  what  the  axe  can  make : 

"  The  axe  leaps  ! 

The  solid  forest  gives  fluid  utterances; 
They  tumble  forth,  they  rise  and  form, 

Hut,  tent,  landing,  survey, 

****** 

Hoe,  rake,  pitchfork,  pencil,  wagon,  staff, 
Saw,  jack-plane,  wedge,  mallet,  rounce," — 

and  so  on  in  a  pitiless  enumeration,  until  we  feel  that 
he  has  confused  the  function  of  the  poet  with  the 
duties  of  an  invoice-clerk.  The  other  passage  is  taken 
almost  at  random  from  the  same  poem : 

"  To  use  the  hammer  or  the  saw  (rip  or  cross-cut], 
To  cultivate  a  turn  for  carpentering,  plastering,  painting." 

These  instances  do  not  show  Whitman  at  his  best,  yet 
they  fairly  represent  the  average  quality  of  hundreds 
of  pages.  If  they  have  any  touch  of  poetry  in  them, 
the  world's  poetic  sense  has  been  perverted  from  the 
days  of  Homer  until  now. 

A  hardly  less  serious  shortcoming  is  the  over 
strained,  incoherent  vein  of  rhapsody  in  which  Whit 
man's  work  abounds.  One  of  his  ablest  admirers, 
John  Addington  Symonds,  admits  that  his  most  seri 
ous  fault  is  a  kind  of  "forcible  feebleness."*  In 
much  of  Whitman's  work  we  find  merely  a  weak 
diffuseness,  a  boisterous  violence  and  extravagance  of 
expression,  instead  of  the  compactness,  precision,  and 
quiet  reserve  of  a  true  strength.  The  power  in  Whit 
man's  poetry  impresses  us  as  the  native  force  and 

*  Walt  Wlntman.     A  Study,  p.  141. 


THE   LATER   WRITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE    STATES    301 

sincerity  of  the  man,  painfully  struggling  to  make 
itself  felt  through  a  clumsy  and  inadequate  means  of 
expression. 

In  judging  either  of  Whitman  or  of  his  theories  of 
art  it  is  not  enough  to  admit  that  there  is  an  element 
of  power  in  the  man  himself,  that  his  views  are  some 
times  inspiring  or  his  aims  high :  we  must  rather  ask 
whether  he  has  the  poet's  gift  of  musical  and  beauti 
ful  speech,  the  power  to  create  that  which  will  per 
manently  delight,  uplift,  and  console  ?  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  Whitman  is  an  original  genius 
hecause  he  differs  from  all  other  poets ;  it  is  easier  to 
differ  from  the  great  poets  than  to  resemble  them.  It 
is  easy  for  a  writer  to  mistake  a  studied  eccentricity 
for  originality ;  but  we  must  remember  that  something 
more  is  required  than  a  departure  from  the  ordinary 
principles  of  composition  in  order  to  create  a  literature 
that  shall  be  truly  national,  and  that  to  violate  any 
essential  principle  of  poetic  art  is  to  violate  the  im 
mortal  laws  of  beauty  on  which  it  rests.  That  Whit 
man  is  different  is  in  itself  neither  for  nor  against 
him;  the  ultimate  test  of  his  work  will  be  in  its 
power  to  move  men. 

Assuming  to  be  the  poet  of  our  democracy,  Whit 
man's  work  is  in  fact  as  utterly  removed  from  the 
people  as  he  himself  was  close  to  them  in  his  daily  life. 
The  scholars  Longfellow  and  Lowell  are  the  poets  of 
thousands  of  humble  homes ;  Whitman  is  as  yet  the 
admiration  of  a  little  clique  among  the  most  cultured 
upper  class.  Called  the  founder  of  a  national  Ameri 
can  literature,  by  a  singular  irony  he  is  better  known 


302     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

to  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  England  than  among 
the  people  of  his  own  land.  Whether  he  will  ever  be 
our  poet  as  Burns  is  the  poet  of  Scotland,  is  a  matter 
for  individual  judgment.  In  the  meantime  it  may 
help  us  to  apply  to  him  his  own  test: 

"  The  proof  of  a  poet  should  be  sternly  deferred  till 
his  country  absorbs  him  as  affectionately  as  he  has 
absorbed  it." 

STUDY  LIST. 
TAYLOR   AND    WHITMAN. 

1.  Bayard    Taylor,     (a)   Among    the    shorter    poems 
"The    Bedouin    Song,"    "Nubia,"    the     classical    study 
"Hylas,"   and    "A  Song  of  the   Camp"  may  be  read   as 
favorable  examples  of  Taylor's  poetic  powers.     ' '  The  Quaker 
"Widow  "  is  interesting  as  an  idyllic  presentation  of  a  phase 
of  life  not  often  treated  in  our  verse.     The  longer  narrative 
poem  "  Lars  :  A  Pastoral  of  Norway"  should  not  be  passed 
over.     It  is  a  beautiful  study  of  the  life  in  Norway  and  in 
Taylor's  own  section  of  Pennsylvania  ;  the  fierce  primitive 
passions  and  rude  customs  of  Norwegian  life  are  contrasted 
with  the  placid  and  peace-loving  existence  of  the  Quakers. 
The  story  is  well  told,  and  the  poem  abounds  in  admirable 
descriptions  of  nature.     "  Views  Afoot "  will  give  a  fair  idea 
of  Taylor's  ability  as  a  writer  of  travels,  and  "  The  Story 
of  Kennet "  of  his  work  as  a  novelist. 

(6)  BIOGRAPHY  AND  CRITICISM.  The  best  life  of  Taylor 
is  that  by  Albert  H.  Smyth  in  the  American  Men  of  Letters 
Series  (1896).  See  also  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Bayard 
Taylor,  by  Marie  Hansen  Taylor  and  Horace  E.  Scudder, 
and,  especially  for  criticism,  Steclman's  Poets  of  America. 

2.  Walt  Whitman,     (a)  POEMS. — Whitman's  work  is  so 
diffuse,  voluminous,  and  unequal  that  it  will  be  found  best 


THE    LATER   WRITERS   OF   THE    MIDDLE    STATES   303 

to  approach  him  through  one  of  the  volumes  of  Selections, 
in  which  we  are  given  examples  of  his  best  manner  only. 
Any  one  or  all  of  the  following  selected  editions  of  his 
poems  will  be  found  convenient :  Poems;  Selected  and 
Edited  by  William  Michael  Rossetti  (with  a  critical  intro 
duction  by  the  editor),  London,  1880 ;  Selected  Poems  by 
Walt  Whitman  (Webster  &  Co.,  1892)  ;  Selected  Poems  in 
the  Camelot  Classics,  with  an  introduction  by  Ernest  Rhys. 
Among  the  poems  or  selections  worthy  of  especial  notice 
the  following  may  be  mentioned:  "O  Captain!  my  Cap 
tain,"  a  lament  on  the  death  of  Lincoln,  one  of  the  best 
known  of  Whitman's  poems,  and  one  of  the  most  regular 
in  its  poetic  form;  "The  Mystic  Trumpeter,"  "Out  of 
the  Cradle  Endlessly  Rocking, ''  ' '  When  Lilacs  Last  in  the 
Dooryard  Bloom'd."  "  Pioneers  !  O  Pioneers,"  which  deals, 
as  its  name  implies,  with  the  great  westward  migration, 
shows  Whitman's  large  feeling  for  country.  The  "Beat! 
Beat!  Drums!"  from  "Drum-taps,"  is  full  of  martial 
vigor  and  spirit,  while  the  "  Come  Up  from  the  Fields, 
Father,"  a  pathetic  study  of  simple  home-life,  shows  the 
war  from  another  aspect. 

(6)  PROSE. — Specimen  Days  in  America,  in  the  Camelot 
Classic  Series,  is  convenient  as  an  introduction  to  a  study 
of  Whitman's  prose.  The  account  of  his  experience  in  the 
Washington  hospitals  in  this  book  gives  us  some  idea  of 
that  tenderness  and  strength  which  undoubtedly  formed  a 
part  of  Whitman's  singular,  and  in  some  respects  disap 
pointing,  character.  Democratic  Vistas,  the  preface  to  the 
Leaves  of  Grass,  and  A  Backward  Glance  O'er  Travelled 
Roads,  help  us  to  understand  Whitman's  views  on  poetry 
as  an  art,  and  on  American  literature  and  society.  See 
also  Autobiographia ;  or  the  Story  of  a  Life,  by  Walt 
Whitman.  Selected  from  his  prose  writings  (Webster  & 
Co.,  1892). 

(c)  BIOGRAPHY  AND  CRITICISM.    Only  a  few  books  from 


304      INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

the  growing  mass  of  Whitman  literature  need  be  given 
here.  Life,  by  William  Clarke  (London,  1892),  is  a  short 
and  convenient  biography,  with  critical  comments.  The 
longer  life  by  Richard  Maurice  Bucke  (1883)  ranks  high  as 
an  authority.  John  Burroughs,  who-  writes  as  a  personal 
friend  as  well  as  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  poet,  has 
given  us  his  critical  views  and  personal  impressions  in  Walt 
Whitman  as  Poet  and  Person,  and  W/iitman :  a  Study 
(1896).  Among  the  many  essays  on  this  subject  we  may 
mention  that  of  J.  A.  Symouds,  entitled  "Democratic  Art, 
with  Special  Reference  to  Walt  Whitman,"  in  Essays  Specu 
lative  and  Suggestive,  vol.  ii.,  and  that  of  Edward  Dowden 
on  "  The  Poet  of  Democracy,"  iu  Studies  in  Literature. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

GENERAL    SURVEY    OF     LITERATURE     SINCE 
THE    WAR. 


Any  attempt  at  a  critical  estimate  of  the  work  of 
those  writers  who  have  risen  into  prominence  since  the 
Civil  War  would  be  out  of  place  in  an  elementary 
study  like  the  present.  When  we  try  to  form  a  clear 
conception  of  the  general  character  of  the  period  as  a 
whole,  \ve  are  confused  by  the  vast  amount  of  writing 
produced  within  that  time,  and  by  the  large  number 
of  writers  in  many  departments  of  literature,  whose 
work  would  naturally  claim  the  attention  of  the  his 
torian.  If  one  could  master  all  that  has  been  pub 
lished  in  the  United  States  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  in  itself  an  almost  impossible  task,  one  could 
not  safely  undertake  to  sift  the  permanent  from  the 
transient  or  to  pronounce  upon  the  relative  merits  of 
authors  many  of  whom  are  just  entering  upon  their 
work.  In  these  matters  we  must  wait  patiently  for 
the  test  of  time:  we  are  too  close  to  see  clearly  or  to 
judge  impartially,  too  much  influenced  by  individual 
prejudices  or  likings ;  and  any  criticism  under  such 
conditions  would  be  little  more  than  an  expression  of 
partial  knowledge  and  personal  impressions.  Yet  to 
avoid  any  reference  to  the  history  of  our  literature 
during  this  recent  period,  to  omit  all  consideration  of 
its  present  conditions  or  future  prospects,  would  be  to 

305 


306     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMEB1CAN    LITERATURE 

leave  our  study  obviously  incomplete.  It  seems  best, 
therefore,  to  refer  briefly  to  a  few  movements  which, 
so  far  as  we  can  now  determine,  have  marked  our  lit 
erary  history  since  the  Civil  War,  attempting  no 
criticism  of  recent  or  living  writers,  but  contenting 
ourselves  with  a  passing  mention  of  a  few  prominent 
names  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the  general  trend 
of  the  literature  whose  course  they  have  helped  to 
determine. 

As  we  look  to-day  over  the  whole  field  we  are  im 
pressed  with  the  ever- widening  area  over  which  our 

literary  activity  is  becoming  distributed. 
The  wider  J  J 

distribu-        When   Irving  wrote,  a  great  part  of  the 

tion  of  our     country  was  still  unconquered  or  even  un- 

iitcr*i  turc. 

explored;  our  civilization  and  enterprise 
have  now  overflowed  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Eastern 
settlements,  and  have  spread  from  sea  to  sea.  Along 
the  Pacific  coast  are  populous  towns  and  mighty 
cities,  while  the  great  plains  of  the  middle  West,  so 
lately  the  home  of  the  Indian  and  the  buffalo,  are 
being  converted  into  a  region  of  grain-fields  or  pasture- 
land,  from  which  we  supply  the  markets  of  the  world. 
Throughout  this  vast  extent  of  territory  prosperous 
towns  have  sprung  up,  to  be  new  centers  of  vealth 
and  of  the  life  of  the  intellect.  The  public-school 
system,  established  so  long  ago  in  New  England,  has 
followed  in  the  train  of  settlement  and  become  a  well- 
established  and  important  element  in  the  life  of  these 
new  communities  of  the  West.  As  wealth,  luxury, 
and  refinement  increase  among  us,  as  they  spread 
continually  over  a  wider  area,  and  as  education  be- 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE   CIVIL   WAR  307 

comes  more  general  throughout  the  country,  our  lit 
erature  is  gradually  passing  beyond  its  old  geographi 
cal  boundaries,  and  the  literary  life  of  the  older  Eastern 
cities  is  being  more  and  more  shared  by  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  and  other  cities  of  the  West. 

lint  while  we  see  that  the  West  and  the  South  are 
gaining  in  importance  as  factors  in  our  literary  his 
tory,  the  prominence  of  New  York  as  a  The  place 
center  of  literature  has  been  an  undoubted  of  New 
feature  of  this  recent  period,  especially  cent  iitera. 
since  the  passing  of  the  great  writers  of  ture- 
the  New  England  school.  It  is  not  hard  to  under 
stand  why  this  should  be  the  case.  Though  in  itself 
distinctly  mercantile  rather  than  literary  in  tone, 
New  York  is  the  largest,  the  richest,  and  the  most 
cosmopolitan  of  our  great  cities,  and  as  such  it  is  a 
natural  commercial  center  for  our  literature.  It  sup 
ports  some  of  our  best  daily  and  weekly  papers,  thus 
attracting  many  writers  who,  like  Bryant,  Taylor,  or 
Stoddard  in  an  earlier  time,  find  it  desirable  to  com 
bine  journalism  with  literature;  it  contains  many  of 
our  largest  publishing-houses,  and,  more  than  all,  it  is 
the  home  of  a  large  proportion  of  our  leading  maga 
zines.  A  city  which  holds  out  such  rewards  to  the 
successful  literary  worker  naturally  draws  many 
writers  to  itself.  Young  writers,  or  untried  aspirants 
for  literary  distinction,  seek  New  York  somewhat  as 
the  youth  of  England  go  up  to  try  their  fortunes  in 
London,  and  many  more  who  do  not  actually  live 
in  New  York  look  to  her  magazines  and  publishing- 
houses  as  the  best  market  for  their  work.  The  great 


308     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

illustrated  monthlies  of  New  York  are  known  to  all 
of  us,  and  they  fill  an  enormous  place  in  the  mental 
life  of  our  country.  Without  stopping  to  mention 
many  others  of  more  recent  date,  Harpers  Monthly 
(founded  1850),  Scrilncr's  Magazine  (first  series, 
1870-1881;  second  series,  1889-),  and  The  Century 
Magazine  (1881)  have  been  the  medium  for  much 
that  is  best  in  our  recent  literature,  and  have  been 
the  means  of  introducing  many  of  our  best  writers  to 
their  public.  Through  them,  for  instance,  nearly  all 
of  the  latest  group  of  Southern  story-writers  gained 
a  hearing  and  rapidly  won  their  way  into  favor. 
Through  Harper  s,  moreover,  George  William  Curtis 
long  delighted  us  with  his  wise  and  kindly  comments 
on  life,  books,  and  manners;  through  it  William 
Dean  Howells  expounded  his  views  of  the  art  of 
fiction*  and  through  it  Charles  Dudley  Warner  is 
to-day  giving  us  his  mature  reflections  on  men  and 
things.  This  literary  influence  and  importance  of 
New  York  is  consequently  one  of  the  features  of  our 
literature  during  the  period  under  review.  There  we 
find  some  of  our  best  living  critics,  such  as  Edmund 
Clarence  Stedman  and  George  E.  AVoodberry;  some 
of  our  foremost  story-writers,  such  as  Frank  R. 
Stockton,  Thomas  A.  Janvier,  and  Richard  Harding 
Davis, — all  these,  however,  Philadelphiaus  by  birth; 
there  we  find  such  poets  and  writers  as  Richard 
Watson  Gilder,  the  editor  of  The  Century  ;  E.  L. 
Godkin,  the  editor  of  The  Nation  and  the  author  of 
some  careful  studies  on  the  peculiar  problems  of  our 
democracy;  F.  Marion  Crawford,  F.  Hopkinsou 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE   CIVIL   WAR  309 

Smith,  Brander  Matthews,  and  many  more.  With 
New  York  we  associate  the  later  work  of  the  novelist 
William  Dean  Ilowells.  Henry  James,  Ilowells's 
co-worker  in  fiction,  is  a  New  Yorker  by  birth,  but 
on  the  whole  a  very  large  proportion  of  these  so-called 
Xew  York  writers  have  been  born  elsewhere.  Indeed 
so  many  different  sections  of  the  country  speak 
through  rather  than  directly  out  of  New  York,  that 
the  city  may  be  fairly  thought  of  as  representing 
more  than  any  other  center  the  literary  life  of  the 
country  at  large. 

Besides  all  this,  New  York  and  the  Middle  States 
have  had  an  important  share   in  the  creation   of  a 
school  of  fiction,  the  growth  of  which  has 
been  one  of  the  leading  features  of  our    fiction 
recent  literary  history.     The  large  place 
Avhich  fiction  has  come  to  occupy  in  our  literature  is 
too  obvious  to  be  overlooked.     The  period  we  are 
considering  has  given  us  little  poetry  of  a  high  order, 
except  that  produced  in  their  old  age  by  the  poets  of 
the  former  time;  it  has  not  been  remarkable  for  the 
depth  or  eloquence  of  its  weightier  prose,  or  for  the 
brilliancy  and  insight  of  its  literary  criticism,  but  in 
its  fiction  it  has  made  a  distinct  and  notable  con 
tribution  to  literature.     How  are  we  to  think  of  this 
new  fiction  as  compared  to  that  which  preceded  it  ? 

Our  first  great  story-  writers,  while  they  dealt  with 
American  life,  instinctively  turned  aside  from  those 
commonplace  and  prosaic  phases  of  it  with  which 
they  were  daily  brought  into  contact,  and  selected 
those  more  picturesque  and  romantic  themes  which 


310     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

borrowed  some  charm  from  remoteness  and  unfamili- 
arity.  Take,  for  example,  the  work  of  the  four  great 
masters  of  the  earlier  period.  Irving  recreated  the 
vanished  life  of  Manhattan,  or  sought  refuge  in  the 
legends  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque  of  American 
streams;  Cooper  found  his  romantic  coloring  in  the 
Indian,  and  iu  the  dangers  and  freedom  of  border 
life;  Hawthorne,  who  complained  of  the  difficulty  of 
writing  a  romance  about  a  country  where  there  was 
nothing  but  a  "  commonplace  prosperity,"  contrived 
to  envelope  even  his  stories  of  American  life  with  a 
magical  moonlight  atmosphere  which  withdrew  them 
from  the  light  of  common  day;  while  Poe,  the  master 
of  the  terrible  and  the  grotesque,  was,  in  his  own 
way,  as  remote  as  Hawthorne  from  the  bustling, 
money-seeking  world  that  surrounds  us.  But  when 
we  recall  the  best-known  novels  and  short  stories 
written  in  America  within  recent  years,  we  see  at 
once  that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  them  differ 
widely  from  the  romantic  stories  of  the  four  great 
writers  just  mentioned  in  subject,  character,  and 
aim.  Following  the  lead  of  certain  great  contempo 
rary  novelists  in  Russia,  France,  and  Spain,  many  of 
our  later  fiction-writers  have  aimed  to  reproduce, 
with  an  unrelieved  and  unswerving  truth  and  mi 
nuteness,  just  those  every-day  aspects  of  American 
society  which  their  great  predecessors  instinctively 
idealized  or  ignored.  A  so-called  "  realistic  "  school 
of  fiction  has  consequently  risen  up  among  us,  which, 
according  to  one  definition,  "aims  at  embodying  in 
art  the  common  landscape,  common  figures,  and 


LITERATURE    SINCE   THE   CIVIL   AVAR  311 

common  hopes  and  loves  and  ambitions  of  our  com 
mon  life." 

In  nearly  every  great  section  of  our  huge  country 
keen-eyed  observers  have  been  recording  in  fiction 
one  or  another  of  the  almost  innumerable  phases  of 
American  society.  Taken  together,  these  studies 
give  to  the  careful  reader  a  fairly  accurate  notion  of 
our  composite  national  life.  But  life  in  this  country 
is  as  yet  such  a  roughly-pieced  patchwork  of  local 
differences,  that  the  novelist  who  aims  at  a  faithful 
reproduction  of  it  often  gets  no  further  than  a  study 
of  some  particular  locality,  which  he  paints  over  and 
over  again  up  to  the  extreme  limits  of  endurance. 
The  last  thirty  years  has  given  us  a  long  procession 
of  these  local  studies:  it  has  produced  writers  who 
are  practically  specialists  on  some  particular  and 
often  narrow  plot  of  ground.  We  have  had  experts 
on  the  old  lady  of  the  New  England  village,  on  the 
Tennessee  mountaineer  and  the  plantation  negro; 
or,  among  the  novelists  who  have  taken  a  somewhat 
wider  outlook,  we  have  had  elaborate  studies  of 
society  life  in  Boston,  Washington,  Newport,  Phila 
delphia,  or  New  York. 

The  recognized  leaders  in  this  realistic  movement 
are  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS  (1837-)  and  HENRY 
JAMES  (1843-).  For  a  quarter  of  a 


century    Ilowells   has   been  a  prominent    Dean 
r.  j.  T   ,  T    .        Howells. 

figure  among  our  men  oi  letters,  and  in 

many  ways  he  impresses  us  as  one  of  the  most  repre 
sentative  authors  of  his  time.  lie  is  not  college- 
bred,  but  he  has  studied  the  American  in  the  West 


312     INTRODUCTION-  TO  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  in  the  East.  Eesidence  abroad  has  given  him 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  our  country  as  a  whole  in 
the  perspective  which  one  gets  from  a  foreign  point 
of  view.  Born  in  1837,  at  Martin's  Ferry,  in  the 
Ohio  Valley,  he  began  his  career  as  type-setter,  jour 
nalist,  and  poet.  He  wrote  a  campaign  life  of  Lin 
coln  in  1860,  and  was  our  consul  at  Venice  from 
1861  to  1865.  Through  an  early  visit  to  Boston  he 
had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lowell  and  Holmes, 
and  after  his  return  to  America  he  lived  for  a  time 
in  Boston,  where  he  was  received  into  that  chosen 
circle  of  poet-scholars  which  included  Longfellow 
and  Lowell.  He  was  editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
from  1872  to  1881,  after  which  he  removed  to  New 
York,  and  in  1886  assumed  the  charge  of  the  Edi 
tor's  Study  in  Harper's  Monthly. 

Howells  has  by  no  means  confined  himself  to  novel- 
writing.  He  is  the  author  of  many  witty  little  plays 
or  farces ;  he  is  poet  and  literary  critic,  and  has  given 
us  essays  on  the  Italian  poets  and  some  charming 
descriptions  of  Venetian  life;  but  it  is  as  a  leader  of 
the  realistic  movement  in  fiction  that  he  now  chiefly 
concerns  us.  Their  Wedding  Journey,  the  beginning 
of  his  work  as  a  novelist,  appeared  in  1871;  but  since 
then  his  manner  and  methods  have  materially  changed 
as  his  theory  of  the  art  of  fiction  has  taken  shape. 
In  a  long  succession  of  books  he  has  given  us  the 
results  of  his  conscientious  analysis  and  painstaking 
observation  of  the  most  obvious  and  unexceptional 
aspects  of  American  society.  Carefully  shunning  the 
depths  or  the  heights,  he  has  striven  with  an  un- 


LITERATURE   SINCE  THE   CIVIL   WAR  31 3 

wearied  patience  to  bring  before  us  the  average  life 
of  the  average  man  and  woman,  withholding  no  detail 
which  others  might  avoid  as  trivial,  which  might 
help  to  make  his  picture  real.  His  books  are  full  of 
characters  which  are  the  unmistakable  outcome  of 
our  peculiar  conditions.  Silas  Lapham,  struggling  on 
the  perilous  edge  of  social  recognition;  Bartley  Hub- 
bard,  the  slangy,  up-to-date  young  journalist;  Lydia 
Blood,  the  ''Lady  of  the  Aroostook,"  the  New  Eng 
land  country  girl  passing  through  the  complexities 
of  a  more  sophisticated  society,  innocent,  independ 
ent,  thinking  no  evil,  and  so  un-afraid.  And  such 
characters  move  against  a  background  of  more  than 
photographic  reality  and  distinctness.  "\Ye  are  in 
Boston  in  The  Minister's  CJiarge  or  A  Woman's  Rea 
son,  keenly  alive  to  the  fountain  in  the  Common  or 
the  confusing  procession  of  trolley-cars;  we  are  in 
New  York  in  A  Hazard  of  New  Fortunes,  being  initi 
ated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  boarding-house  system 
or  watching  the  trains  on  the  elevated  roads.  When 
we  reflect  that  Howells  has  not  only  given  us  as  a 
novelist  wonderfully  successful  examples  of  his  theo 
ries  of  art,  but  that  he  has,  as  a  critic,  preached  these 
theories  from  the  vantage  of  an  editor's  chair,  we  can 
gain  some  idea  of  the  influence  which  he  has  ex 
ercised  upon  our  recent  fiction. 

Henry  James  has  worked  side  by  side  with  How- 
ells,  and  on  the  same  general  lines.     His  first  book, 
A  Passionate  Pilgrim,  a  collection  of  short    Henry 
stories,    is   indeed    full    of   an    ideal    and    James- 
romantic  beauty  and  grace,  but  he  soon  abandoned 


314     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

this  early  manner  for  work  full  of  cleverness  and 
penetration,  but  of  a  strikingly  realistic  kind.  His 
long  acquaintance  with  life  abroad  and  his  oppor 
tunities  for  the  study  of  the  American  in  Europe  have 
made  him  pre-eminent  in  what  has  been  called  the 
"international  novel," — novels  that  introduce  Euro 
peans  and  Americans  in  those  relations  which  are 
the  outcome  of  our  closer  intercourse  with  the  Old 
World. 

Besides  these  two  leaders  of  realism — the  one  a  na 
tive  of,  the  other  closely  identified  with,  New  York — 
there  are  many  recent  novelists  in  the  Middle  States 
with  whose  work  the  future  historian  of  our  literature 
will  doubtless  have  to  reckon.  Prominent  among 
these  are  Rebecca  Harding  Davis,  first  known  for  her 
powerful  story  Life  in  the  Iron  Mills  (1861);  Ellen 
Olney  Kirk,  Helen  Hunt  Jackson,  and  Margaret 
Del  and. 

While  New  York  has  been  thus  prominent,  New 
England  has  not  lacked  some  notable  writers  in  re- 
Recent  cent  years,  some  of  whom  have  been 

writers  of      clcarly  leaders  in  the  especial  line  to  which 

New  Eng-  J 

land.  they  have  devoted  themselves.     In  fiction, 

New  England  life,  particularly  in  the  country  dis 
tricts  and  the  smaller  towns,  has  been  portrayed  with 
minuteness  and  fidelity  by  such  writers  as  Elizabeth 
Stuart  Phelps  Ward,  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford,  Sarah 
Orne  Jewett,  and  Mary  E.  Wilkins.  Arthur  Sher- 
burne  Hardy  has  produced  novels  notable  for  their 
strength  and  finish  of  style.  Blanche  Willis  Howard, 
whose  entertaining  story  One  Summer  was  most  fa- 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE   CIVIL   WAR  315 

vorably  received,  has  given  us  in  Guenn,  a  story  of 
artist  life  in  Brittany,  one  of  the  strongest  and  most 
masterly  works  of  fiction  produced  in  America  in 
recent  years.  JOHN  FISKE  has  become  widely  known 
as  a  scientist  and  philosophical  thinker,  and  more 
recently  as  one  of  our  ablest  writers  on  American 
history.  The  labors  of  a  group  of  writers  in  this 
last-named  field— JUSTIN  WINSOR  (1831-1897),  the 
author  of  a  scholarly  and  elaborate  history  of  America; 
HENRY  ADAMS,  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,  and  others — 
are  too  important  to  be  passed  over.  Indeed  it  may  be 
said  here  that  outside  of  Xew  England  as  well  as  with 
in  its  limits  an  increasing  attention  to  our  country's 
history  and  institutions  has  been  one  of  the  distinc 
tions  of  these  later  years.  In  the  South  the  labors  of 
Professor  HERBERT  B.  ADAMS,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
'University,  Baltimore,  have  been  instrumental  in 
raising  up  a  school  of  capable  students  and  historians 
of  our  institutions  and  our  past.  The  Middle  States 
have  given  us  the  admirable  works  of  Professor 
"\VOODROAV  WILSON,  of  Princeton  University,  and  of 
JOHN  BACH  McM ASTER,  Professor  of  American  His 
tory  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Returning  to  the  later  literature  of  New  England, 
we  find  but  little  poetry  of  a  high  order  compared  to 
the  fuller  utterance  of  the  preceding  period.  Yet, 
within  its  carefully  defined  and  often  narrow  limits, 
the  poetic  art  of  THOMAS  BAILEY  ALDRICH  is  of 
the  finest  and  most  finished  kind.  Master  of  the 
shorter  and  lighter  lyrical  forms.  Aldhch's  prose 
as  well  as  his  verse  is  distinguished  by  delicacy 
of  workmanship  and  refinement  of  tone.  CELIA 


31(5       INTRODUCTION"   TO    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

THAXTER,  whose  life  was  passed  on  the  Isles  of 
Shoals  off  the  coast  of  New  Hampshire,  did  some 
good  work  both  in  prose  and  verse,  and  some  of  her 
shorter  poems,  such  as  The  Little  Sandpiper  and 
The  Tryst,  though  slight,  possess  unmistakable 
poetic  feeling.  Another  poet  of  later  New  England, 
EDWARD  ROWLAND  SILL  (1841-1887),  lias  enriched 
our  literature  with  some  sonnets  and  short  poems  of 
unusual  power  and  depth  of  thought.  Though  born 
in  Connecticut,  the  greater  part  of  the  productive 
period  of  Sill's  life  was  spent  in  the  far  West.  He 
was  for  a  time  professor  in  the  University  of  Cali 
fornia,  but  his  early  death  in  Ohio  cut  short  a 
career  full  of  promise.  But  he  was  essentially  a 
New  England er  from  first  to  last.  He  was  not 
an  imitator  of  Emerson, — indeed  his  verse  has  a 
distinctly  individual  note, — but  he  expressed  after 
his  own  fashion  that  inner  spirit  of  New  England 
that  we  find  also  in  Emerson's  verse.  He  has  the 
same  deep  love  of  nature,  and  his  work  is  pervaded 
by  that  high  seriousness  and  philosophic  depth  which 
is  characteristic  alike  of  Emerson  and  of  the  would- 
be-emancipated  Puritanism  of  which  he  was  the  repre 
sentative.  Sill  left  but  little  verse,  yet  he  left  enough 
to  show  us  that  in  him  we  lost  a  true  poet,  filled  with 
noble  ideals  of  life  and  beauty,  and  endowed  with  the 
faculty  of  insight  into  the  heart  of  things. 

Let  us  now  attempt  to  form  some  general  concep 
tion  of  the  place  and  part  of  the  South  and  West  in 
our  recent  literary  history.  While  New  York,  the 
mighty  metropolis  of  the  Middle  States,  has  been,  as 


LITERATURE    SINCE   THE   CIVIL   WAR  317 

has  been  said,  the  greatest  commercial  center  for  our 
literature  during  recent  years;  while  New  England, 
although  gradually  losing  her  supremacy,  Literature 
has  continued  to  hold  an  important  place  in  the 
in  our  intellectual  and  literary  life, — it 
seems  probable  that  the  most  significant  and  promis 
ing  literary  developments  have  come  from  the  South. 
"With  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Southern  States 
entered  upon  a  new  and  momentous  era  in  their  his 
tory.  They  had  fought  to  the  end  for  the  main 
tenance  of  the  old  regime  with  a  desperate  and  heroic 
determination ;  they  had  given  of  their  best,  and  the 
war  left  them  weakened  and  impoverished.  But  ter 
ribly  as  the  South  had  suffered,  it  showed  a  remark 
able  power  of  recuperation ;  for  the  inevitable  changes 
consequent  upon  the  war  brought  with  them  a  new 
principle  of  growth,  and  opened  the  way,  painful  and 
difficult  as  it  seemed,  to  a  broader  and  healthier  de 
velopment.  Slavery,  which  had  been  the  basis  of  the 
social  and  agricultural  system  of  the  South,  had  be 
come  more  and  more  a  bar  to  progress.  The  abolition 
of  slavery  freed  the  South  from  a  burden  and  a  peril ; 
it  brought  with  it  the  advance  of  the  Southern  States 
on  new  lines,  it  united  them  more  closely  to  the  rest 
of  the  country,  and  enabled  them  to  share  in  the  for 
ward  movement  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Within 
ten  years  after  Lee's  surrender  many  grave  political 
and  industrial  problems  had  been  successfully  met, 
and  the  reorganization  of  the  South  in  harmony  with 
our  national  life  had  been  substantially  accomplished. 
With  these  changes  in  the  social,  industrial,  and  edu- 


318     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

cational  conditions,  with  the  fuller  development  of 
the  South's  internal  resources,  the  infusion  of  North 
ern  elements,  and  the  quickening  contact  with  the 
life  of  the  world  without,  has  come  the  rapid  rise  of  a 
new  group  of  Southern  writers  and  the  entrance  of  a 
comparatively  new  force  into  our  literature. 

During  the  years  immediately  after  the  war  the 
South  needed  all  her  energies  for  the  difficult  task  of 
readjustment  to  her  changed  conditions,  but  as  her 
hardest  problems  began  to  press  less  heavily,  and  as 
she  felt  the  stimulus  of  new  forces  stirring  within 
her,  this  new  life  began  to  find  a  voice.  Accordingly, 
about  ten  or  fifteen  years  after  peace  was  established, 
one  Southern  writer  after  another  won  his  way  into 
public  favor^  chiefly  through  the  pages  of  the  great 
Northern  magazines.  The  writers  of  this  new  school 
devoted  themselves  almost  entirely  to  fiction;  there 
were  a  few  verse-writers  among  them,  but  the  short 
story  Avas,  on  the  whole,  their  favorite  literary  form. 
For  the  most  part  they  treated,  with  picturesque- 
ness  and  pathos,  of  various  phases  of  Southern  life  in 
the  present  and  in  the  past.  It  is  true  that  Simms, 
Cooke,  and  others  of  an  earlier  generation  had  given 
their  stories  a  similar  setting,  but  the  new  writers 
presented  the  many-sided  life  of  the  South  in  its 
more  out-of-the-way  and  less  familiar  aspects,  or 
else  treated  it  with  a  freshness  and  fidelity  born  of 
a  keener  perception  of  its  peculiarities  or  its  charm. 
Thus  GEORGE  "W.  CABLE  has  taken  for  his  theme  the 
life  of  the  Creoles  in  his  native  city  of  Xew  Orleans, 
MARY  1ST.  MURFREE  (Charles  Egbert  Craddock)  has 


LITERATURE    SINCE    THE    CIVIL   AVAR  319 

taken  us  into  the  remote  mountain  regions  of  Ten 
nessee,  while  THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE  lias  set  us  in  the 
midst  of  the  landed  gentry  of  old  Virginia,  Recent 
and,  with  such  writers  as  JOEL  CHANDLER  writers. 
HARRIS,  KUTH  MCENERY  STUART,  and  IRWIN  Kus- 
SELL,  has  given  the  negro  a  place  in  literature.  A 
mere  allusion  to  a  few  of  these  recent  Southern  writers 
is  all  that  is  possible  for  us  here.  GRACE  KING,  like 
Cable,  is  known  through  her  portrayal  of  the  Creole 
life  and  character;  RICHARD  MALCOLM  JOHNSTON, 
whose  work  dates,  however,  from  a  much  earlier  pe 
riod,  has  continued  his  delineation  of  Georgia  scenes; 
and  more  recently  JAMES  LANE  ALLEN  lias  given  us 
from  Kentucky  work  characterized  by  thoughtfulness 
and  beauty,  with  a  deep  and  almost  primitive  hold 
on  the  life  of  nature. 

When  we  attempt  to  understand  and  measure  this  lit 
erature  of  the  new  South,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  it 
has  already  brought  a  fresh  and  welcome  impulse,  and 
that  we  are  justified  in  looking  to  it  for  still  further 
and  perhaps  greater  triumphs.  The  war  divides  these 
younger  writers  from  the  old  South,  whose  glories  they 
love  to  revive  in  art.  An  abrupt  change  has  removed 
all  that  generous  and  splendid  life  of  the  past  into  the 
proper  perspective  for  the  literary  artist.  Its  broad 
plantations,  its  ample  manor-houses,  full  of  comfort, 
ease,  and  repose;  its  gentlemen  of  a  vanished  school, 
simple  and  high-minded,  irascible  but  kindly;  living 
like  patriarchs  among  their  troops  of  slaves, — all  these 
things,  seen  through  a  softening  light  of  memory,  re 
ceding  and  yet  familiar,  give  to  the  Southern  writer 


320     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

a  peculiarly  rich  and  romantic  background.  The 
negro  alone,  as  revealed  to  us  by  Page  or  Harris  in 
fiction,  and  by  Russell  in  dialect  verse;  his  uncon 
scious  humor,  his  delicious  peculiarities,  his  quaint 
superstitious  and  folk-lore,  has  given  to  these  crea 
tions  of  the  recent  South  an  element  before  almost 
unknown  to  literature. 

But  these  Southern  story-writers  have  done  more 

than  give  us  studies  of  new  localities :  we 
Smth  aUd  feel  instinctively  a  different  quality  in  their 

work.  If  we  contrast  it  with  the  produc 
tions  of  New  England,  intellectual,  self-examining, 
self-conscious,  we  feel  the  richer  coloring,  the  warmer 
blood,  and  quicker  pulses  of  the  South.  Eead  the 
most  characteristic  of  Hawthorne's  stories,  and  then 
turn  to  the  Mars'  Chan'  or  Mcli  Lady  of  Thomas 
Nelson  Page.  It  is  like  passing  from  the  world  of 
thought  to  the  world  of  action,  from  the  analysis  of 
life  to  living.  The  fine-spun  problems  of  mind  and 
conscience  have  no  place  in  this  world,  but  instead  we 
have  a  story  of  which  men  and  women  never  tire, 
which  is  almost  as  old  in  all  its  essential  elements  as 
human  life.  It  is  a  world  to  be  alive  in,  a  young 
world,  where  the  men  are  full  of  knightly  courtesies 
and  knightly  courage,  and  where  the  women  are  good 
and  fair;  a  world  of  young  heroes  who  can  lead  a 
cavalry  charge  up  the  slope,  to  fall  under  the  very 
lips  of  the  cannon;  of  simple-hearted  slaves  whose 
lives  are  too  narrow  to  hold  anything  beyond  an  un 
questioning  and  indestructible  fidelity;  of  women  who 
seem  to  belong  Avith  those  heroines  of  Homer,  Shake- 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE    CIVIL   WAR  321 

speare,  or  Scott  whom  the  world  supposes  itself  to 
have  outgrown.  Or  let  us  put  such  a  book  as  Cable's 
Grandissimes  beside  such  a  keen  and  clever  study  of 
Boston  as  Howells's  A  Woman"* 's  Reason,  and  it  is  like 
the  tropic  warmth  of  the  Gulf  Stream  after  the  chill 
of  Northern  waters ;  let  us  place  the  fair,  gentle,  placid 
Priscilla,  that  old-time  Puritan  ideal  of  maidenly  per 
fection,  beside  one  of  Cable's  heroines,  a  creature  of 
life,  impulse,  and  movement,  with  a  "  sparkle  of  the 
Gallic  blood,"  vivacious,  sensitive,  appealing,  change 
able, — and  we  shall  know  that,  whatever  else  this 
Southern  literature  may  be,  at  the  least  it  is  different. 
And  as  there  is  in  the  work  of  these  writers  a 
fuller  throb  of  action  and  motion,  there  is  also  a 
warmth  and  glow  of  color  in  many  of 

their  descriptions  of  nature  which  seem      ?attu,re  in 

Southern 

to  carry  with  them  the  atmosphere  of  the  literature. 
South.  The  earlier  work  of  LAFCADIO 
HEARX,  who,  though  not  a  native  American,  may  be 
associated  with  this  Southern  group,  has  in  it  an 
extraordinary  richness,  an  unrestrained,  emotional 
quality  which  contrasts  sharply  with  the  manner  of 
the  North.  Chit  a,  one  of  his  earliest  stories,  is  alive 
with  the  glow  of  the  Southern  imagination,  with  the 
raptures  of  one  who  has  absorbed  nature  through 
every  sense.  Cable,  too,  has  given  the  Southern  land 
scape  a  place  oeside  that  of  New  England  in  our 
literature.  It  is  before  us  in  many  a  charming  pas 
sage,  distinct  in  outline,  warm  and  glorious  with  color, 
and  bathed  in  the  lucid  clearness  of  the  Southern  sky. 
On  the  whole,  while  we  must  not  undervalue  the 


322     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

earlier  literature  of  the  South,  it  seems  safe  to  con 
clude  that  the  changes  consequent  upon  the  war  have 
brought  with  them  a  new  and  powerful  impulse  to 
literary  production.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  over 
much  of  that  earlier  literature  there  is  "  the  trail  of 
the  amateur,  the  note  of  the  province,  the  odor  of  the 
wax  flower " ;  to-day  the  South  can  boast  of  many 
professional  men  of  letters  who,  relieved  of  the  draw 
backs  which  handicapped  their  predecessors,  belong 
not  to  the  South  merely,  but  to  our  American  people. 
Side  by  side  with  this  literature  of  the  new  South 
The  litera-  we  ^n(^  ^ie  scattered  beginnings  of  a  lit- 
ture  of  the  erature  which  is  not  merely  written  in  the 
West 

West,  but  Western,  transporting  us  to  yet 

other  conditions  and  surroundings,  and  portraying 
them  with  freedom  and  vigor.  These  Western  writers, 
like  those  of  the  South,  have  had  the  advantage  of  a 
background  that  holds  out  magnificent  opportunities 
to  the  poet  and  the  novelist.  For  the  great  literary 
artist  the  West  is  indeed  a  new  land,  full  of  yet 
unwritten  stories  of  heroic  achievement,  of  tragic 
failures,  and  fabulous  successes.  There,  has  been 
seen  in  our  own  day  the  primitive  contest  of  man 
with  his  fellows  and  with  the  stubborn  forces  of 
nature.  Over  the  vast  spaces  of  this  'Western  world 
a  new  migration  of  the  nations  has  swept;  wave 
after  wave,  a  confused,  restless  mass  of  humanity, 
drawn  from  the  Old  World  and  the  New;  stirred 
often  by  lawless  passions,  yet  somehow,  out  of  turbu 
lence,  creating  order,  security,  and  law.  When  gold 
was  discovered  in  California  in  18-49,  and  thousands 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE   CIVIL    WAR  323 

of  fortune-hunters  swarmed  to  the  Pacific  slope,  and 
to  the  wild  life  of  the  mining-camp,  with  its  feverish 
excitements,  its  dangers,  and  its  chances  of  sudden 
wealth,  a  new  field  was  opened,  not  only  to  the  gold- 
hunter,  but  to  the  writer  of  fiction.  It  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  it  was  through  these  mining-camps 
of  California  that  the  West  made  its  first  real  entrance 
into  literature.  Its  first  great  interpreter 
in  literature  was  FRANCIS  BRET  HARTE.  Bret 


Bret  Harte  belongs  to  the  East  by  birth, 
and  to  the  West  by  adoption.  Born  in  Albany,  New 
York,  in  1839,  he  went  to  California  when  about  six 
teen,  and  was  by  turns  school-teacher,  miner,  and  type 
setter.  He  drifted  into  journalism,  and  in  1868  was 
selected  as  the  first  editor  of  the  Overland  Monthly,  a 
magazine  whose  establishment  is  one  of  the  milestones 
in  the  development  of  Western  literature.  The  first 
of  his  many  stories  of  Western  mining  life,  The  Luck 
of  Roaring  Camp,  appeared  in  the  second  number  of 
the  Monthly,  and  gained  him  instant  recognition  in 
the  East.  It  was  followed  by  The  Outcasts  of  Poker 
Flat,  Miggles,  and  a  long  succession  of  other  stories 
in  the  same  vein.  Recognizing  the  possibilities  of  a 
new  subject,  he  had  claimed  it  for  literature,  and  his 
success  was  assured. 

This  rising  Western  literature  found  its  poet  in 
CINCINNATUS  HINER  MILLER,  or  Joaquin  Miller  as 
he  is  more  generally  called,  a  native  of  Indiana,  who, 
like  Bret  Harte,  had  spent  some  time  in  the  gold- 
diggings  of  California.  Miller's  first  book  of  poems, 
Songs  of  the  Sierras,  appeared  in  1871,  a  year  after 


324:     INTRODUCTION    TO    AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

Bret  Harte's  first  collection  of  stories  had  been  issued. 
In  the  same  year  JOHN  HAT,  in  his  Pike  County 
Ballads,  celebrated  in  vigorous  verse  the  rugged 
virtue  and  unsuspected  tenderness  hidden  under  the 
roughness  of  many  a  homely  hero  of  the  West.  Hay, 
like  Miller,  was  a  native  of  Indiana,  a  State  which 
has  also  given  General  LEW  WALLACE,  JAMES  WHIT- 
COMB  RILEY,  and  EDWARD  EGGLESTON  to  literature. 
In  these  early  verses  of  Hay's,  with  their  Western 
vernacular,  their  strong  but  simple  rhythm,  their 
New  World  heroes,  the  captain  of  the  Mississippi 
steamboat  or  the  Western  stage-driver,  we  seem  to 
hear  the  prelude  to  a  new  literature  of  democracy. 
Hay  is  but  one  of  those  who  have  stood  before  this 
life  of  the  West  in  its  heroism,  its  coarseness,  its  in 
terminable  wastes  of  commonplace,  and  endeavored  to 
convert  the  mass  of  raw  material  to  the  poet's  use. 
Bret  Harte's  spirited  and  unconventional  verses  on 
the  ruder  aspects  of  Western  life  have  been  followed 
by  those  of  EUGENE  FIELD  (1850-1896),  the  Chicago 
journalist;  its  mere  every-day  side,  in  all  its  monoto 
nous  drudgery  or  hopeless  commonplace,  has  been 
essayed  by  such  writers  as  WILL  CARLETON,  who  rose 
to  popularity  by  his  Betsey  and  I  are  Out  (1871),  and 
JAMES  WHITCOMB  RILEY.  However  we  may  regard 
these  attempts  to  embody  the  ordinary  lives  of  thou 
sands  of  our  people  in  the  forms  of  art,  they  must  at 
least  interest  us  as  experiments  and  as  indications  of 
the  widening  area  of  our  literature.  Nor  is  it  only  in 
this  homely  verse  that  the  less  dramatic  and  drearier 
side  of  existence  in  the  great  West  has  found  its 


LITERATURE   SINCE   THE   CIVIL   WAR  325 

chroniclers;  such  writers  as  EDWARD  EGGLESTON, 
JOSEPH  KIRKLAND,  E.  W.  HOWE,  MARY  HALLOCK 
FOOTE,  OCTAVE  THANET  (Miss  French),  HAMLIN 
GARLAND,  and  CAPTAIN  CHARLES  KING  have  famil 
iarized  us  through  their  prose  with  many  of  its  varied 
aspects.  Kirkland,  a  native  of  New  York  State,  who 
passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  Chicago,  has  not 
shrunk  from  depicting  in  Zury  (1887)  the  dead  level 
of  existence  in  the  agricultural  solitudes  of  the  Middle 
West,  in  all  its  isolation,  sordidness,  and  privations, 
with  a  pitiless  realism  and  an  unquestionable  power. 
E^o-leston,  well  known  bv  his  Hoosier  Schoolmaster 

oo  •/ 

(1871),  Poxy  (1878),  and  other  books,  Howe,  and 
Garland,  have  made  places  for  themselves  in  different 
portions  of  the  same  vast  field.  Mary  Hallock  Foote, 
in  such  books  as  her  Led  Horse  Claim,  depicts  the 
life  of  the  mining-camp ;  while  Captain  Charles  King 
admits  us  into  the  little  world  of  the  Western  army- 
posts.  In  sharp  contrast  to  the  writers  who  aim  to 
bring  before  us  the  ruder  aspects  of  the  West  is 
H.  B.  FULLER,  who  takes  us  into  the  rush  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Western  cities  in  his  two  novels  of 
Chicago,  The  Cliff  Dwellers  (1893)  and  With  the 
Procession  (1895). 

Such  a  recital  of  a  few  names  gives  us  but  an  im 
perfect  idea  of  the  true  scope  and  nature  of  the  lit 
erature  of  the  West,  now  just  springing  into  life. 
We  find  in  it  a  promising  note  of  self-confidence  and 
enthusiasm,  with  an  intense  local  pride.  One  of  the 
best  of  its  younger  writers,  Hamlin  Garland,  has 
defiantly  asserted  its  freedom  from  the  literary  stand- 


326     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN"   LITERATURE 

jirds  of  the  past.  He  has  announced  that  the  day 
of  the  East,  with  its  over-cautious  adherence  to  foreign 
models,  is  over,  and  that  the  day  of  the  West  is  at 
hand.  He  has  declared  that  "the  past  is  not  vital," 
and  that  in  the  great  Middle  West,  "emancipated" 
from  tradition,  the  true  American  literature  is  to  be 
born.*  We  should  not  put  this  aside  as  vain  boasting; 

the  spirit  that  seeks  to  repudiate  our  in- 
istics  of  the  debtedness  to  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
utefaTure  English  people  may  be  both  foolish  and 

immature,  but  it  has  in  it  an  element  of 
self-reliance  that  is  a  good  omen  for  the  future.  It  is 
true  that  our  writers  have,  as  a  whole,  shown  too 
little  of  that  confidence  in  their  own  strength  which 
one  would  naturally  expect  in  a  young  people,  and  if 
the  West  has  something  of  the  ignorant  recklessness 
of  youth  in  literary  matters,  it  is,  after  all,  to  youth 
that  the  future  belongs.  As  yet  Western  literature 
is  largely  experimental,  but  when  we  think  of  the 
daring,  the  resources,  the  magnificent  reserve  of 
energy  in  that  great  region,  we  must  thankfully 
acknowledge  that  out  of  this  prolific  West  a  broader, 
bolder,  and  more  national  literature  may  yet  come. 

One  characteristic  feature  of  our  recent  literature 
— its  humor — we  have  reserved  for  a  separate  men 
tion.  Probably  no  other  element  in  our  literature  is 
so  distinctly  and  exclusively  American.  Imitative 
as  much  of  our  serious  work  may  be,  our  humor 

*The  Literary  Emancipation  of  the  West.  The  Forum, 
XVI.  p.  156.  See  also  The  Arena,  V.  669  ;  and  H.  Garland's 
Crumbling  Idols. 


LITERATURE    SINCE   THE   CIVIL   AVAR  327 

is   unmistakably   a    genuinely   national    production. 
Even  the  English,  while  their  perception  of  the  Ameri 
can  joke  is  apt  to  be  delayed  and  uncer 
tain,  admit  that  our  humor  is  ours  alone.       American 

humor. 

They  may  call  it  "vulgar,"  or  "rudi 
mentary,"  or  "  middle-class,"  but  they  acknowledge 
that  we  are  at  least  entitled  to  say  of  it,  "A  poor 
thing,  sir,  but  mine  own."  A  leading  English  critic 
and  essayist,  for  instance,  writes:  "The  Americans 
are  of  our  own  stock,  yet  in  their  treatment  of  the 
ludicrous  how  unlike  us  they  are!  As  far  as  fun 
goes,  the  race  has  certainly  become  differentiated."* 
In  fact,  humor  is  a  characteristic  element  in  our  liter 
ature,  because  it  extends  far  beyond  purely  literary 
limits  and  is  a  characteristic  element  in  the  American 
people.  Neither  our  poetry  nor  our  scholarship  rests 
on  such  a  broad  basis  of  popular  appreciation.  Our 
sense  of  the  ludicrous  is  not  the  possession  of  a  limited 
class;  it  is  a  national  trait.  It  declares  itself  in  the 
funny  columns  of  countless  newspapers,  in  our  popu 
lar  songs,  our  minstrels,  our  theatres,  our  slang;  it  is 
stamped  on  thousands  of  funny  stories  that,  handed 
on  from  one  to  another,  traverse  the  whole  country 
with  wonderful  swiftness.  Xo  wonder,  then,  that 
when  some  of  this  popular  sense  of  humor  gets  into 
literature  we  recognize  in  it  marks  of  a  national  trait. 
Our  American  humor  in  its  different  manifesta 
tions  is  of  so  many  different  grades  that  it  is  difficult 
to  speak  of  it  as  a  whole.  Our  best  writers,  such 

*  Andrew  Lang.     Article   on  "American  Humor,"  in  Lost 
Leaders,  p.  70. 


328     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

as  Irving,  Lowell,  and  Holmes,  have  created  works 
which  from  the  firm  and  enduring  quality  of  their 
humor  are  fairly  entitled  to  be  called  classical;  but 
from  such  masterpieces  as  The  History  of  New  York 
or  Tlie  Biglow  Papers  we  descend  through  innumer 
able  gradations  to  the  crude  coloring  and  broadly 
farcical  fun  of  certain  of  our  illustrated  papers,  or  to 
the  yet  wider  realms  that  lie  beyond  the  range  of 
print.  Much  of  our  most  characteristic  humor  lies 
in  an  uncertain  region  somewhere  between  these  two 
extremes,  and  we  might  mention  many  writers  who 
furnished  fun  to  our  fathers  or  grandfathers,  whose 
works  are  now  little  more  than  empty  names. 

The  last  thirty  years  has  been  especially  rich  in 
humorous  writings  of  a  distinctly  original  character. 
We  need  not  ask  how  many  of  these  works  which 
amuse  us  will  continue  to  amuse  our  descendants :  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  at  least  they  have  filled  a  large 
space  in  the  period  we  are  considering.  These  years 
have  given  us  HENRY  W.  SHAW  (1818-1885),  known 
to  most  of  us  as  "  Josh  Billings";.  CHARLES  FARRAR 
BROWNE  ("Artemus  Ward")  (1834-1867);  and 
SAMUEL  LANGHORNE  CLEMENS,  or  '-Mark  Twain." 
Besides  these  are  many  others :  DAVID  Eoss  LOCKE, 
prominent  after  the  war,  under  the  pseudonym  of 
"  Petroleum  Vesuvius  Nasby,"  as  a  political  satirist; 
EDGAR  WILSON  NYE,  or  "Bill  Xye";  EGBERT  J. 
BURDETTE,  of  the  Burling  ton  Hawkey  e;  and  countless 
others  of  varying  shades  of  merit.  If  we  look  at  the 
work  of  these  writers  as  a  whole,  without  any  attempt 
at  specific  criticism,  it  is  evident  that  it  is  broadly 


LITERATURE    SINCE   THE   CIVIL    WAR  329 

representative,  because  the  essential  elements  of  its 
humor  are  a  structural  part  of  our  national  character. 
It  has,  in  the  first  place,  an  underlying  basis  of  sound 
morality  and  hard  common  sense.  It  often  sins 
against  good  taste,  but  seldom  against  good  morals; 
on  the  contrary,  we  can  often  detect  under  its  extrava 
gance  and  absurdity  a  definite  moral  purpose.  "Josh 
Billings,"  in  his  Farmer's  Allminax  (1869),  is  another 
Franklin,  as  shrewd  and  as  sensible  as  "Poor 
Richard,"  but  with  a  distinctly  higher  moral  tone. 
Take  away  the  thin  disguise  of  bad  spelling  from 
Shaw's  best  sayings,  and  we  find  the  typical  American 
who  "thinks  straight  and  sees  clear,"  the  teacher 
of  the  people  who  can  pack  the  essence  of  a  subject 
into  a  homely  epigram.  This  absence  of  any  display 
of  sentiment,  this  mingling  of  sound  sense  and  a 
profound  seriousness  of  purpose  with  a  quaint  or 
humorous  expression,  is  characteristic  not  only  of 
Franklin,  but  of  that  broadly  representative  Amer 
ican,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

A   still   more   conspicuous   trait  in  our  American 
humor  is  its  lack  of  reverence.     As  a  people  we  find 
a  genuine  schoolboy's  pleasure  in  the  dese 
cration  or  belittling  of  anything  solemn,    Our  lack  of 

3  reverence, 

venerable,  or  impressive,  and  we  have  a 

corresponding  fear  of  betraying  either  enthusiasm  or 
emotion.  The  purpose  of  Mark  Twain's  famous 
books  of  travel  is  said  to  be  the  ridicule  of  the  rhap 
sodies  of  the  American  tourist  in  Europe;  but  to 
some  of  us  even  shallow  raptures  are  better  than  a 
cynical  levity.  In  his  Innocents  Abroad,  whatever 


330     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN   LITERATURE 

its  purpose,  we  see  the  typical  American  Philistine, 
turned  loose  among  the  proudest  achievements  of 
civilization,  poking  fun  at  Michael  Angelo,  winking 
familiarly  in  the  most  inopportune  places,  and  habitu 
ally  flippant  in  the  presence  of  things  consecrated  to 
reverence.*  This  "unwearying  search  after  the 
comic  side  of  serious  subjects"  and  "after  the  mean 
possibilities  of  the  sublime "  runs  through  an  enor 
mous  proportion  of  our  humorous  literature.  We 
find  material  for  jesting  in  our  enthusiasms,  our 
aspirations,  and  our  beliefs,  while  some  of  our  most 
serious  national  problems  and  gravest  national  perils 
— the  corruption  of  politics  or  dishonesty  in  business 

— furnish  stock  subjects  for  the  cheap  wit 
Exaggera-  • 

tion  as  an      of  the  newspaper  paragrapher.    With  the 

element  in  same  coolness,  levity,  and  jaunty  self- 
our  humor.  "  J 

sufficiency  we  Americans  have  delighted 

in  playing  base-ball  under  the  shadow  of  the  Sphinx, 
or  in  instituting  a  Wild  West  Show  in  the  Coliseum. 
The  culmination  of  our  impervious  audacity  is  shown 
in  the  story  of  the  progressive  traveller  who  blew  out 
the  light,  believed  by  the  pious  to  have  been  burning 
in  a  certain  shrine  for  a  thousand  years,  with  the 
triumphant  exclamation,  "Well,  I  guess  it's  out 
now ! "  Another  element  in  our  humor  is  the  daring 
absurdity  of  its  exaggeration :  thus  we  are  told  of  the 
Texas  cows,  so  thin  that  it  takes  two  men  to  see  one 


*  It  is  but  just  to  remind  the  student  that  Mark  Twain  has 
done  some  excellent  work  of  a  quite  different  character.  He 
is  here  alluded  to  simply  as  a  humorist. 


LITERATURE    SINCE   THE    CIVIL    WAR  331 

of  them,  and  of  the  express  train  that  went  so  fast 
that  the  mile-posts  looked  like  a  pale  fence. 

Looking  at  our  American  humor  as  impartially  as 
we  can,  we  must  acknowledge  that,  while  it  is  almost 
invariably  clever  and  amusing,  it  often  fails  in  those 
deeper  and  finer  elements  which  give  to  the  work  of 
the  world's  greatest  humorists  a  more  enduring  quality. 
The  masters  of  humor  do  not  deal  in  broad  farce  only ; 
they  do  not  place  their  chief  reliance  on  the  travesty 
of  the  sacred  or  the  admirable;  they  are  not  merely 
amusing, — they  are  rather  lords  of  that  dubious  border 
land,  full  of  pathetic  suggestion,  which  lies  between 
laughter  and  tears.  While  our  humor  is  not  without 
these  finer  elements,  they  are  subordinated,  on  the 
whole,  to  a  good-natured  cynicism  or  a  boisterous  fun. 

The  work  of  our  humorists  is,  nevertheless,  a  whole 
some  and  a  hopeful  element  in  our  national  literature. 
It  has  behind  it  the  power  of  an  enormous  popular 
sympathy  and  a  crude  but  vigorous  native  force; 
back  of  it  is  a  great  nation,  dexterous,  nimble-witted, 
alert;  a  nation  that  thinks  and  lives  fast,  with  a  keen 
sense  of  the  ludicrous,  and  an  almost  invincible  good- 
humor.  We  have  already  contributed  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  innocent  "gaiety  of  nations,"  and  we 
can  hardly  doubt  that  humor  will  continue  to  be  one 
of  the  distinctions  of  our  literature  in  the  years  to 
come. 

We  began  our  study  by  remarking  that  in  its  origin 
our  literature  was  a  literature  of  sections:  we  de 
clared  that  its  history  was,  before  all,  the  story  of  the 
drawing  together  of  this  group  of  isolated  literatures 


332     INTRODUCTION   TO   AMERICAN    LITERATURE 

into  a  comparative  unity,  out  of  which  a  more  truly 
national  literature  might  come.  After  completing  our 
survey  of  literary  progress  during  the  latest 
period  we  are  better  able  to  realize  that 
the  local  differences  impressed  so  deeply  upon  the 
great  sections  of  the  country  from  the  first  are  not 
even  now  wholly  effaced.  Looking  back  over  our 
past  we  know  that  these  differences  are  the  inevitable 
result  of  many  causes,  and  that  nothing  can  obliterate 
them  but  time.  It  is  not  merely  for  convenience 
that  we  have  continued  to  classify  our  writers,  as  far 
as  possible,  according  to  the  section  which  produced 
them.  We  have  still  a  literature  of  New  England, 
another  of  the  Middle  States,  another  of  the  South, 
and  yet  another  of  the  West,  each  distinguished  by 
characteristics  of  its  own.  As  yet,  a  truly  national 
literature  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist,  for  such  a 
literature  must  have  back  of  it  a  homogeneous  people 
with  a  distinctive  national  character  and  ideals. 
Shakespeare  does  not  stand  for  his  native  county  of 
Warwickshire ;  he  stands  for  England  and  the  English 
type.  We  cannot  imagine  that  even  a  genius  equal 
to  Shakespeare  could  so  stand  for  America,  for  the 
American  types  and  the  American  ideals  are  yet  top 
varied  and  uncertain.  But  if  we  are  not  yet  a  nation 
in  this  deeper  sense,  we  can  see  that  out  of  much 
confusion  one  national  character  is  taking  form.  One 
terrible  menace  to  union  has  been  met  and  overcome ; 
modern  methods  of  transportation  and  communica 
tion  have  helped  and  are  still  helping  to  bind  together 
our  widely  scattered  population,  and  the  spread  of 


LITERATURE    SI^CE   THE   CIVIL   WAK  333 

a  practically  uniform  system  of  popular  education  is 
continually  bringing  Americans  into  a  closer  union 
and  establishing  between  them  the  bond  of  a  common 
ideal.  These  things  are  legitimate  causes  of  encour 
agement  so  far  as  our  literary  future  is  concerned. 
We  are  inclined  to  speak  hopefully  of  that  future, 
but  by  no  means  with  a  foolish  confidence.  So  far  our 
literature,  with  all  its  successes,  is  but  little  more 
than  the  earnest  of  something  greater  to  come.  Its 
share  in  the  higher  life  of  man  must  depend  largely 
on  the  faithfulness  of  the  American  people  to  their 
highest  ideals.  If  we  believe  that  a  noble  future  lies 
before  our  democracy,  we  will  believe  that  it  lies  be 
fore  our  literature  likewise.  There  is  no  lack  of  in 
herent  ability  in  us;  we  can  do  what  we  will.  If  as 
a  nation  we  can  be  saved  from  the  dangers  of  great 
possessions,  if  we  can  resist  the  thousand  insidious 
influences  which  are  corrupting  our  national  charac 
ter,  and  give  that  which  is  best  in  us  free  play, 
American  literature,  like  that  of  Greece,  Home,  or 
England,  will  take  its  place  among  the  most  precious 
and  imperishable  possessions  of  our  race. 


APPENDIX 


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>" 
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fl 

1773. 
First  Continental  Con 
gress.  1774. 
Boston  Port  Bill.  1774. 
Battles  of  Lexington 

and  Bunker  Hill, 
1775. 

Washington  took  com 
mand  of  the  Amer 
ican  Army,  July  3, 
1775. 

Siege  of  Boston,  1775. 
"  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,"  1776. 
Boston  evacuated  by 
the  British,  1776. 
Articles  of  Confedera 
tion  adopted  by  Con 
gress,  1777. 

Burgoyne's  surrender, 
1777. 

Independence  of  the 
United  States  ac 
knowledged  by 
France,  1778. 

ENGLISH  HISTORY  AND 
LITERATURE. 

Goldsmith,  died  1774. 

Sou  they,  born  1774. 
Burke's  Speech  on 
American  Taxation, 
1774. 

Chesterfield:  Letters 
to  his  Son,  1774. 
Jane  Austen,  Lamb, 
and  Landor,  b.  1775. 
Burke's  Speech  on 
Conciliation  with 
America,  1775. 
Sheridan's  "The 
Rivals,"  1775. 

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Sheridan's  "School  for 

Scandal,"  1777. 

Hazlitt,  born  1778. 
Frances  Burney's 

"  Evelina,"  1778. 

APPENDIX 


349 


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INDEX. 


Abolition,   influence  on  litera 
ture.     See  SLAVERY. 
Acadia,  179 

Adams,  Charles  F.,  cited,  77 
Adams,  Henry,  315  ;  cited,  72, 

157,  162 

Adams;  Herbert  B.,  315 
Adams,   John,  99  ;   Works  (C. 

F.  Adams),  77 
Adams,  Samuel,  93,  99,  150 
Addison,  Joseph,   influence  on 
American     literature,    252  ; 
imitated,  83,  85,  91,  119,  123 
Ages,  The  (Bryant),  142,  147 
Al  Ara(if(Poe),  265 
Alcott,  A.  Bronson,  172 
Ale n in,   a    Dialogue     on     tlie 
KigJits    of    Women     (C.    B. 
Brown),  109 
Alden,  John,  180 
Alden,  Joseph,  cited,  148 
Allan,  John,  265,  266 
Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  cited,  72 
Allen,  James  Lane,  319 
Allston,  Washington,  155 
Almanac,  the  first  American, 26 
Almrick  Castle  (Halleck),  152 
America,  scope  of  the  term,  1 
etseq.;  growth  of  education 
in,  18,  19,  24-26,  28,  33-35  ; 
the  printing-press  in,  18,  19, 
26,  34     the  first  newspaper 
in,    26  ;  the    first   American 
book,  37;  the  establishment 
of  nationality,  75  et  seq. 


America  (Dwight),  103 

America  Independent  (Fre- 
neau),  103 

American  authors,  despised 
abroad,  115 

American  Biography  (Sparks), 
49,  112 

American  books,  despised 
abroad,  115 

"  American  Cicero,"  the,  93 

A  m  erican  Commomrealtli 

(Bryce),  37,  228 

American  Flag,  The  (Drake), 
153 

American  history,  8 

American  humor,  152,  207, 
211-216,  326-331  ;  the  first 
masterpiece  of,  120,  121 

American  Humorists  (Haweis), 
244,  245 

American  literature,  the  term, 
1  et  seq.;  its  growth,  2  et 
seq.,  13  et  seq.;  takes  place 
among  the  literatures  of  the 
world,  115 

American  Literature  (Nichols), 
112 

American  Literature  (Rich 
ardson),  72,  112 

American  Literature  (Tyler). 
See  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN 
LITERATURE. 

American  Literature  (Whip- 
pie),  130,  178,  247 

American  Magazine,  The,  70 

American  Note-Book  (Haw 
thorne),  194 

369 


370 


INDEX. 


American  Notes  (Dickens), 
quoted,  171 

American  Philosophical  So 
ciety,  85 

American  Political  Ideas 
(Fiske),  24 

American  Revolution  (Fiske), 
99,  100 

American  Scholar,  The  (Emer 
son),  170,  176,  177 

41  American  Scott,"  the,  135 

American  War  Ballads  and 
Lyrics  (Eggleston),  112 

Ames,  Fisher,  150 

Ancient  Psalmody  and  Hym- 
nology  of  New  England 
(Staples),  55 

Annabel  Lee  (Poe),  272,  274 

Annals  of  the  American  Pul 
pit,  48 

Arabian  Nights'  Entertain 
ments,  imitated,  129 

Arena,  The,  326 

Areopagitica  (Milton),  19 

Arnold,  Matthew,  cited,  28, 
176 

Artemus  Ward.    See  BROWNE. 

Arthur  Mervyn  (C.  B.  Brown), 
109, 110 

Atlantic  Monthly,  The,  207, 
209,  216,  312 

Authors  at  Home  (Gilder),  246 

Autobioqraphia,  or  the  Story 
of^a  Life  (Whitman),  303 

Autobiography  of  Franklin, 
The,  82-84,  87,  89,  90,  92 

Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast 
Table,  T/ie  (Holmes),  211, 
214,  216,  217,  245 


Backward  Glance  o'er  Trav 
elled  Roads  (Whitman),  298, 
303 

Bacon's  Rebellion,  40 


Bancroft,    George,    200,   228 , 

cited,  73  ,  Study  List,  246 
Barbara  Frietchie  (Whittier), 

245 

Barbary,  war  with,  114 
Barclay     of    Ury    (Whittier), 

245 
Barefoot  Boy,  The  (Whittier), 

224,  245 
Barlow,  Joel,   102,    106,    110, 

112,  146,  150,  186 
Barnaby      Ruclge     (Dickens), 

mentioned,  269 
Bartram,  John,  68 
Baskervill,  William  Malone, 

cited,  262,  283 
Battle  of  the  Kegs,  The  (Hop- 

kinson),  102 
Bay  Psalm  Book,  The  26,  54, 

55,  70 

Beach  Bird,  The  (Dana),  155 
Bedouin   Song,    Tlie   (Taylor), 

292,  302 

Beers,  Prof.,  153,  259,  260 
Beginnings  of  New  England, 

The  (Fiske),  73 

Belfry  of  Bruges,  The  (Long 
fellow),  186 
Bells,  The  (Poe),  274 
Berenice,  (Poe)  272 
Berkeley,  George,    mentioned, 

112 
Berkeley,    Sir     William,    40  ; 

quoted,  18,  19 

Bernard,  Sir  Francis, quoted, 78 
Betsey  and  I  Are  Out  (Carle 

ton),  324 

Beverly,  Robert,  cited,  27 
Bigelow,  John,  cited,  92 
Biglow  Papers  (Lowell),    202, 

205-207,  244,  328 
Billings,    Josh.      See    SHAW, 

HENRY  W. 
"  Bill  Nye."  See  NYE,  EDGAR 

W. 

Birds    of    Passage    (Longfel 
low),  187 


INDEX. 


371 


Birrell,  Augustine,  cited,  178 

Black  Cat,  The  (Poe),  274 

Blitlu  dale  Romance,  The  (Haw 
thorne),  194,  195 

Boker,  George  Henry,  28G,  287 

Boone,  Daniel,  188 

Boston,  as  a  literary  center,  21, 
32,  155,  160  et  seq.,  213,  219, 
240,  250,  254,  312  ;  literature 
in,  159 

Bonton  Courier,  The,  205 

Boatou  Neirs  Letter,  The,  26 

Bracebridge  Hall  (Irving),  123, 
129 

Brackenridge,  Hugh  Henry, 
102,  103 

Bradford,  William  (governor  of 
Massachusetts),  42,  43 

Bradford,  William  (of  Phila 
delphia),  34 

Bradstreet,  Anne  ("The  Tenth 
Muse  "),  57-59,  212 

Breakfast-Table  Series,  The 
(Holmes),  245 

Bridal  of  Pennacook,  The 
(VVhittier),  222 

Bridge,  The  (Longfellow),  189 

Bridges,  Horatio,  cited,  199 

Brief  Biographical  Memoir  of 
Life  of  James  Otis,  A  (Tu 
dor),  17 

Brief  Description  of  New  York, 
A  (Uenton),  67 

Broad-Axe,  The  (Whitman), 
300 

Brook  Farm,  Mass.,  172,  173. 
178,  194,  201 

Brown,  Charles  Brockden,  108- 
112,  115,  141,  143,  150;  Life 
(Sparks),  112;  Study  List,  112 

Brown,  E.  E.,  cited,  245 

Browne,  Charles  Farrar  ("  Ar- 
tetnus  Ward  "  ),  328 

Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett, 
imitated,  273 

Browning,  Robert,  compared, 
261,  281;  quoted,  279,  280 


Bryant,  William  Cullen,  140- 
148.  151,  284,  289,  307; 
cited,  130,  140,  148  ;  coin- 
pared,  140,  154,  180;  Life: 
(Bigelow)  148,  (Godwin)  148, 
(Hill),  148  ;  Study  List,  147, 
148 

Bryce,  James,  37  ;  cited,  228 

Buccaneer,  The  (Dana),  155 

Buckminster,  J.  S.,  quoted, 
162,  163 

Bunker's  Hill  (Brackenridge), 
103 

Bunyan,  John,  influence  on 
American  literature,  83 

Burdette,  Robert  J.,  328 

Burke,  Edmund,  mentioned,  97 

Bucke,  Richard  Maurice,  cited, 
296,  304 

Burlington  Hawkeye,   The,  328 

Burnet,  Bishop  Gilbert,  quoted, 
68 

Burns,  Robert,  compared,  224, 
225,  245,  264,  302  ;  influence 
on  American  literature,  164, 
220,  221 

Burns  (Halleck),  152 

Burns  (Whittier),  245 

Burroughs,  John,  cited,  295, 
304 

Busybody  Papers,  The  (Frank 
lin),  85  ;  compared,  119 

Butler,  Samuel,  imitated,  106  ; 
compared,  206 

Byron,  Lord,  compared,  152, 
"206,  264  ;  imitated,  266 


C 


Cable,  George  W.,  249,  318, 
319,  321 

Cabot,  James  Elliot,  cited,  177 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  compared, 
236 

California,  in  American  litera 
ture,  322,  323 


372 


INDEX. 


Calvinism,  influence  on  litera 
ture,  65 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  as  a  literary 
center,  11,  26,  165,  183,  211, 
213,  219,  240 

Cambridge  University,  in 
fluence  on  American  litera 
ture,  24,  26,  43,  54 

Campbell,  Thomas,  compared, 
152  ;  mentioned,  107 

Carleton,  Will,  324 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  influence  on 
American  literature,  164, 
168,  169,  253  ;  quoted,  172, 
237,  238 

Carlyle-and-Emerson  Corre 
spondence  (Norton),  quoted, 
238 

Carsol  (C.  B.  Brown),  109 

Cassandra  Southirick  (Whit- 
tier),  222,  245 

Cathedral,  The  (Lowell),  242 

Cato's  Distiches  (trans.  Logan), 
68 

Celtic  literature,  4 

Century  Magazine,  The,  308 

Chambered  Nautilus,  The 
(Holmes),  215,  244 

Channing,  William  Ellery, 
163,  167,  180 ;  compared, 
66,  252 

Character  and  Characteristic 
Men  (Whipple),  199 

Charleston,  as  a  literary  center, 
255-259 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  compared, 
116  ;  imitated,  71  ;  Works 
(ed.  Lounsbury),  293,  294 

Chicago  as  a  literary  center, 
21,  307 

Child,  Francis  J.,  200 

Children's  Hour,  The  (Longfel 
low),  189 

Christabel  (Coleridge),  com 
pared,  153 

Chita  (Hearn),  321 

"Cicero,  The  American,"  93 


Cicero's   De  Senectute  (trans. 

Logan),  68 

Cities,  their  influence  on  litera 
ture,  20 
Citizen    of    the    World,     The 

(Goldsmith),  imitated,  119 
Ciy  in  the  Sea,  The  (Poe),  271 , 

274 

Civil  War,  tlie,  influence  on 
American  literature,  249, 
256-259,  261,  275-277,  279, 
286,  297,  303,  317-319,  322  ; 
American  literature  since, 
305-333 
Clara  Howard  (C.  B.  Brown), 

109 

Clarke,  J.  T.,  cited,  262 
Clarke,  William,  cited,  304 
Clay,  Henry,  compared,  238 
Clemens,    Samuel    Langhorne 
("Mark  Twain"),  211,  328- 
330  ;    cited,   140  ;  compared, 
152 

Clemrn,  Mrs.,  267,  268 
Clemm,  Virginia,  266,  267 
Clergy,  the,  influence   on   lit 
erature,  18,  28,  29,  42,  46- 
50,  60,  67,  102 

Cliff- Direllers,  The  (Fuller), 325 
Clifton,  William,  150,  158 
Closing  Scene,  The  (Read),  286 
Coffin,  Joshua,  quoted,  55 
Culeridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  145; 
compared,     153  ;     imitated, 
173,     273 ;       influence      on 
American      literature,     163, 
164,    166,     252,    293  ;    men 
tioned,  145 
College  of  William  and  Mary, 

the,  19,  25 
Collins,    Anthony,   mentioned, 

84 
Collins,    William,     compared, 

286 

Colonial  Era,  The  (Fisher),  73 
Colonial  literature,  13  et  seq. , 
36  et  seq.,  75 


INDEX. 


373 


Colonies,  the  union  of  the,  113 

Colonies,  The  (Thvvaite),  73 

Columbia  (Dwight),  103 

Colttmbiad,  The  (Barlow),  104, 
106 

Columbus,  Life  of  (Irving),  124 

Come  up  from  the  Fields,  Fa 
ther  (Whitman),  303 

Commemoration  Address  on 
Bryant  (Curtis),  quoted,  141 

Commemoration  Ode,  The 
(Lowell),  207,  244 

Companions  of  Columbus  (Ir 
ving),  124 

Concord,  Mass  ,  as  a  literary 
center,  11,  165,  168,  169, 194, 
219,  240 

Concord  Hymn,  The  (Emerson), 
169,  177 

Conquest  of  Canaan,  The 
(Dwight),  103,  106 

Conquest  of  Granada,  The  (Ir 
ving),  124, 129 

Conquest  of  Mexico,  The  (Pres- 
cott),  246 

Conquest  of  Peru,  The  (Pres- 
cott),  229,  230 

Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  and  the 
Indian  War  after  the  Con 
quest  of  Canada  (Parkinan), 
235,  246 

Contemplations  (Bradstreet),  50 

Con  way,  Moncure  IX,  cited,  199 

Cooke,  John  Esten,  259,  260  ; 
cited,  73,  253,  262 ;  com 
pared,  318 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  107, 
115,  130-140,  142,  144,  146, 
148,  151,  152,  284,  289,  310  ; 
compared,  110,  140,  255,  256; 
Life  (Lounsbury),  140; 
Study  List,  139,  140 

Cooper,  Susan  Fenimore,  cited, 
140 

Corn  (Lanier).  277,  283 

Cotter's  Saturday  Night,  The 
(Burns),  compared,  245 


Cotton,  John,  mentioned,  56 

Cotton  Boll,  The  (Timrod),  257 

Count  Frontenac,  or  New 
France  under  Louis  XIV. 
(Parkinan),  235 

Country  Church,  The  (Irving), 
123,  129 

Co urtin',  The  (Lowell),  207, 
244 

Court  of  Fancy,  The  (God 
frey),  71 

Court  of  Love,  Tlie  (Godfrey) 
71 

Courtship  of  Miles  Standish, 
The  (Longfellow),  180,  189; 
compared,  206 

Cowper,  William,  compared, 
225;  imitated,  106,  146 

"  Craddock,  Charles  Egbert." 
See  MURFHEE,  MARY  N. 

Crashaw,  Richard,  compared, 
56 

Crawford,  F.  Marion,  308 

Creoles,  The,  in  literature, 
318,  319,  321 

Critical  Miscellanies  (Morley), 
cited,  178 

Critical  Period  of  American 
History  (Fiske),  100 

Croaker  Poems,  The.  (Halleck), 
152 

Crumbling  Idols  (Garland),  326 

Culprit  Fay,  The  (Drake),  153 

Curtis,  George  William,  201, 
308;  cited,  90,  130,  141,  148, 
177,  190,  199,  244-247;  com 
pared,  238;  quoted,  208,  212 


D 

Dana,  Richard  Henry,  155 
Dante,  compared,  60,  61 
Dante     (trans.      Longfellow), 

185,  189 
Darwin,  Erasmus,  mentioned, 

106 


374 


INDEX. 


Davis,  Jefferson,  quoted,  90 

Davis,  Rebecca  Harding,  314 

Davis,  Richard  Harding,  308 

Day,  Mary,  277 

Day  of  Doom,  The  (Wiggles- 
worth),  53,  59-62,  65,  70 

Death  of  the  Flowers,  The 
(Bryant),  147 

Declaration-  of  Independence, 
The,  96,  97,'  99,  150 

Deer  slayer,  The  (Cooper),  136, 
137 

Defoe,  Daniel,  imitated,  270? 
influence  on  American  lit 
erature,  118;  mentioned,  138 

Deland,  Margaret,  314 

Delaware,  Lord,  17 

Democracy,  the  literature  of, 
203,  205-207,  210,  211,  294- 
296,  298-304,  324-331 

Democratic  Vistas  (Whitman), 
294,  295,  303 

Demonology,  52,  53,  62 

Dennie,  Joseph,  157 

Denton,  Daniel,  67 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  com 
pared,  196 

De  Sencctute,  Cicero's  (trans. 
Logan),  68 

Dial,  The,  172 

Dialect,  287,  320 

Dickens,  Charles,  compared, 
213;  mentioned,  269;  quoted, 
171 

Dickenson,  Jonathan,  67 

Dickinson,  John,  78 

Dictionary  of  Hymnology 
(Julian),  cited,  55 

Discourse  on  Cooper  (Bryant), 
cited,  140 

Discussions  in  History  and 
Theology  (Fisher),  cited, 
73 

Distiches,  Cato's  (trans.  Logan), 
68 

Divine  Comedy,  The  (trans. 
Longfellow),  185 


Divine  Weeks  and  Works  (Du 

Bartas),  imitated,  59 
Dobson,     Austin,      compared 

215,  245 

Dolph  Heyligcr  (Irving),  129 
Donne,  Rev.  John, compared, 56 
Dorothy  Q.  (Holmes),  215,  244 
Dowden,  Edward,  cited,  112, 

304 
Doyle,  John  Andrew,  cited,  16, 

73 
Drake,  Joseph  Rodman,  151- 

153 

Drama,  the,  286,  287 
Dray  ton,    Michael,  compared, 

153 

Drifting  (Read),  286 
Drum-Taps  (Whitman),    297, 

303 
Dryden,  John,  compared,  206; 

imitated,  69 
Du   Bartas,  Guillaume  de  S., 

imitated,  59 
Dwight,    Timothy,    102,    103, 

105,  106,  110,  111,  146,  150. 

186 
Dyer,  Rev.  John,  imitated,  106 


E 

Eastward  Ho!  (Marston),  16 
Eaton,  Sir  Thomas,  mentioned, 

40 
Ecclesiastical  History   of  New 

England.      See    MAGNALIA 

CHKISTI  AMEKICANA. 
Edgar  Iluntly  (C.  B.  Brown), 

109-111 
Education,  growth  in  America, 

18,  19,  24-26,  28,  33-35,  98, 

306,  307 
Edwards,     Jonathan,      63-67, 

103,  115,  212  ;  compared,  72, 

82,  91  ;  Essay  on  (Holmes), 

72;  Life  (Allen),  72  ;  Study 

List,  72,  73 


INDEX. 


375 


Eggleston,  Edward,  112,  824, 
325 

Eighty  Years'  War  for  Libert// 
(Motley),  232 

E^egy  in  a  Country  Church 
yard  (Gray),  imitated,  69 

Eliot,  George,  compared,  139 

Eliot,  John,  26,  54 

Elsie.  Ve nner  (Holmes),  217, 
245 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  7,  11, 
143,  151,  156,  160,  162,  164- 
178,  202,  214,  240-242,  285, 
297;  compared,  66,  180,  185, 
190,  198,  199,  211,  218,  219, 
252,  264,  316  ;  quoted,  199, 
204  ;  Life  :  (Cabot)  177, 
(Garnett)  177,  (Grimm)  177, 
(Holmes)  177;  Study  List, 
177,  178 

Emerson  the  Lecturer  (Lowell), 
quoted,  166 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  cit 
ed,  112 

England,  American  literature 
in,  295,  302;  civil  conflict  in, 
14;  colonization  of  America, 
14  et  seq. ;  decline  of  Pope's 
influence  in,  145;  expansion 
of,  5,  6,  freedom  of  the  press 
in,  19 ;  its  literature  com 
pared,  243;  the  literature  of, 
2,  149,  248,  249,  332,  333  ; 
slow  rise  of  the  literary  pro 
fession  in,  36;  war  of  1812, 
114 

England  and  English  litera 
ture,  influence  of,  on  Am 
erican  literature,  69,  71,  72, 
75-77,  83-85,  91,  92,  96,  97, 
101-103,  105-109,  111,  112, 
119,  121,  128,  130,  182,  146, 
147,  163,  164,  169,  173.  195, 
196,  209,  248;.  249,  252,  253, 
265,  266,  278,  292,  293,  326 

English  colonial  literature,  5, 
6 


English  Colonies  in  America 
(Doyle),  16,  73 

English  Colonies  in  America 
(Lodge),  17,  19,  73 

English  colonization,  5,  6 

English  Culture  in  Virginia 
(Trent),  262 

English  Novel,  The  (Lauier), 
278 

English  Portraits,  92 

English  Traits  (Emerson),  173, 
177,  242 

Ephemera,  The  (Franklin),  91 

Epigram,  176,  329 

Epitaphs,  54 

Erie  Canal,  the,  158 

Essay  on  Addison  (Macaulay), 
cited,  69 

Essay  on  Jonathan  Edwards 
(Holmes),  72 

Essay  on  Man  (Pope),  imi 
tated,  91 

Essay  on  Rousseau  (Lowell), 
quoted,  211 

Exsay  on  Thoreau  (Lowell), 
quoted,  171 

Essays  (Emerson),  177 

Essays  and  Reviews  (Whip- 
pie),  148,  190,  245-247 

Essays  in  Literary  Criticism 
(Button),  cited,  199 

Essays  in  London  (James),  244 

Essays  Speculative  and  Sug 
gestive  (Symonds),  cited,  304 

Eternal  Goodness,  The  (Whit- 
tier),  227,  245 

Eulahe  (Poe),  274 

Europe,  influence  on  American 
literature,  134,  152,  155, 163, 
164,  173,  178,  179,  181-187, 
195,  196,  203,  218,  242,  243, 
248,  249,  288-292,  294,  314 

European  literature,  5 

Eutaw  Springs  (Freneau),  107, 
112 

Ecangeline  (Longfellow),  188, 
189;  compared,  292 


376 


INDEX. 


Evening  Post,  The,  142 
Everett,    Edward,     164,    236, 

238,  246,  247 
Exaggeration,    the   American 

spirit  of,  330,  331 
Excelsior  (Longfellow),  184 
Excursions  in  Criticism  (Wat 
son),  cited,  244 


F 

Fable  for  Critics  (Lowell),  130 

140,  148,  161,  244 
Fable  of  the  Bees,   TJie  (Man- 

deville),  mentioned,  85 
Fall  of  the   House  of  Usher, 

The  (Poe),  270,  272,  274 
Farmer's  Allminax,  The,  329 
Farmer's  Letter,  The  (Dickiu 

son),  78 
"  Father  of   American   Song, 

The,"  140 

Faust,    Goethe's   (trans.    Tay 
lor),  290 

Federalist,  The,  94,  95,  99,  150 
Felton,  Cornelius  Conway,  200 
Fenimore  Cooper's  Literary 

Offences    (Clemens — "Mark 

Twain  "),  cited,  140 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella.    See 

HISTORY,  etc. 

Fiction,  growth  of,  309  et  seq. 
Field,  Eugene,  324 
Fields,  James  Ticknor,  cited, 

199 

Finland,    influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  186 
Fisher,  George  P.,  cited,  73 
Fiske,  John,  815;  cited,  24,  73, 

99,  100 
Florida,     Spanish     occupation 

of,  76 
Florida   Sunday,  A   (Lanier), 

281 

Folger,  Peter,  mentioned,  82 
Folk-lore,  320 


Foote,  Mary  Hallock,  325 

Footsteps  of  Angels  (Longfel 
low),  182,  183 

For  Annie  (Poe),  272 

Ford,  Paul  Leicester,  cited,  92, 
98,  99 

Forest  Hymn,  A  (Bryant),  147 

Formation  of  the  Union,  The 
(Hart),  100 

Forum,  The,  cited,  326 

Four  Elements,  The  (Brad- 
street),  58 

Four  Monarchies,  The  (Brad- 
street),  58 

Four  Seasons,  The  (Brad- 
street),  59 

France,  American  literature 
in,  263;  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  96,  182,  183, 
185,  186,  195,  196,  261,  310; 
literature  in,  149;  posses 
sions  in  America,  76,  77 

France  and  England  in  NortJi, 
America  (Parkman),  cited, 
73 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  26,  72, 
76,  77,  79-92,  115,  118,  143, 
150;  compared,  119,  329; 
quoted,  82;  Autobiography, 
82-84,  87,  89,  90,  92;  Life: 
(McMaster)  92;  (Morse)  92, 
(Parton)  92;  Study  List,  92. 

Franklin  Bibliography,  The 
(Ford),  cited,  92 

Franklin,  James,  mentioned, 
84 

Franklin,  Josiah,  mentioned, 
81 

Freedom  of  the  Will,  On  the 
(Edwards),  66 

French,  Alice  ("Octave  Tha- 
net"),  325 

French  Revolution,  influence 
on  American  literature,  101 

French  War  and  the  Revolu 
tion,  The  (Sloane),  73 

Freneau,  Philip,  102,  103,  107, 


INDEX. 


110-112,     115,     150;     Study 

List,  112 
Froissart's  Chronicles  (ed.  La- 

nier),  278 

Frothingham,  O.  B.,  cited,  178 
Fuller,  II.  B.,  325 
Fuller,      Margaret     (Countess 

Ossoli),  172,  178;  Life  (Hig- 

ginson),  cited,  178 
Fuller,  Thomas,  quoted,  38,  39 
Furness,  Horace  Howard,  293 


Garland,  Hamlin,  325,  326; 
cited,  186 

Garnett,  Richard,  cited,  177 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  201, 
202,  220 

Gates,  Merrill  E.,  cited,  283 

Georgia,  colonization  of,  14; 
in  literature,  319;  literature 
in,  248,  254,  260,  261,  275 

Georgia  Scenes  (Lougstreet), 
261 

Germany,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  33,  163,  164, 
166,  169,  171,  182-186,  196, 
252,  287 

Gilder,  J.  B.,  cited,  246 

Gilder,  J.  S.,  cited,  246 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  308 

Godfrey,  Thomas  (Mathema 
tician),  69 

Godfrey,  Thomas,  Jr.  (Poet), 
70,  71 

Godkin,  E.  L.,  308 

God's  Controversy  trith  New 
England  (Wigglesworth), 
62 

God's  Protective  Providence 
Man's  Surest  Help  and  De 
fence  (Dickenson),  67 

Godwin,  Mary  (Wollstone- 
craft),  followed,  108 

Godwin,  Parke,  cited,  148 


Godwin,    William,    108,    109, 

111,  112 

Goethe,  translated,  290 
Gold  Bug,  The  (Poe),  269,  274 
Gold-discoveries,   influence  oil 

American     literature,     322, 

323,  325 
Goldsmith,    Oliver,    imitated, 

106,  119,  12:j;  Life  (Irving), 

126 

Gosse,  Edmund,  cited,  275 
Graham's  Magazine,  158 
Grandissimes,  The  (Cable),  321 
Gray,  Thomas,  compared,  286; 

imitated,  69;   Works  (Reed), 

293 
Greece,    the    literature  of,   4, 

333 

Greenfield  Hill  (Dwight),  106 
Green  River  (Bryant),  147 
Grimm,  Herman,  cited,  177 
Griswold,      Rufus     Grinnell, 

cited,  246 
Guardian  Angel,  The  (Holmes), 

217 

Guenn  (Howard),  315 
Gulliver's      Travels      (Swift), 

imitated,  91 


H 

Hail    Columbia    (Hopkinson), 

102 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  201 
Half  Century   of   Conflict,    A 

(Parkman),  235 
Ilalleck,  Fitz-Greene,  151-153, 

289 
Hamilton,   Alexander,   94,   95, 

99 

Hamlet     (Shakespeare),     imi 
tated,  71 
Hampden,  John,  compared,  24, 

29 
Hans  Breitman  Ballads,  The 

(Leland),  287 


3r*-Q 
I  O 


INDEX. 


Hardy,  Arthur  Sherburne,  314 
' '  Harland,  Marion. "   See  TER- 

HUXE,  M.  V. 

Harper's  New  Monthly  Maga 
zine,  90,  308,  312 
Harris,    Joel    Chandler,    261, 

262,  319,  320 
Hart,   Albert  Bushnell,  cited, 

100 

Harte,  Francis  Bret,  323,  324 
Harvard  Book,  The,  quoted,  62 
Harvard    College,    foundation 
of,  25;  influence  on  American 
literature,   26,  28,  162,  213, 
240 

Haunted  Palace,  The(Poe),  274 

Haunts   and   Homes  of   Our 

Elder  Poets  (Stoddard),  246 

Haweis,  Hugh  Reginald,  cited, 

244,  245 

Hawthorne,  Julian,  cited,  199 
Hawthorne,   Nathaniel,  7,   11, 
46,  156,  160,  168,  181,  190- 
199,  240,  242,  243,  268,  285, 
310;  compared,  111,  205,  211, 
259,   264,  310,  320  ;  quoted, 
166,    174;    Life:    (Conway) 
199,  (Julian  Hawthorne)  199, 
(James)  109;  Study  List,  199 
Hay,  John,  324 
Hayne,    Paul   Hamilton,    256- 
259;     quoted,     251;     Study 
List,  262 
Hazard  of  New  Fortunes,  A 

(Howells),  313 
Hearn,  Lafcadio,  249,  321 
Henley,  W.  E.,  cited,  190 
Henry",   Patrick,   7,  21,  77,  78, 
99,    150;     compared,    238; 
quoted,  93  ;  Life  (Wirt),  253 
Herbert,    Rev.    George,    com 
pared,  56 

Heywood,  John,  imitated,  59 
Hiawatha  (Longfellow),  4,  186, 

206 

Higginson,      Thomas      Went- 
worth,  178,  201 


Hildreth,  Richard,  cited,  73 

Hill,  David  J.,  cited,  129,  148 

Historical,  etc.,  Account  of .  .  . 
Pennsylvania  and  West  New 
Jersey  (Thomas),  67 

Historical  Essays  (Adams),  72 

History,  the  study  of,  246,  315 

History  of  American  Literature 
(Tyler),  20,  24,  40,  41,  72, 
112 

History  of  Cooper  slow  n  (Liver- 
more),  140 

History  of  E/igland(M&c&u\ay), 
quoted,  35 

History  of  My  Own  Times  (Bur- 
net),  quoted,  68 

History  of  Newbury  (Coffin), 
quoted,  55 

History  of  New  England  (Pal 
frey),  55,  73 

History  of  New  England  (Win- 
throp),  43-45 

History  of  New  York  (Irving), 
120-123,  133,  328 

History  of  Plymouth  (Brad 
ford),  42 

History  of  Hie  Conquest  of 
Mexico  (Prescott),  229 

History  of  the  Inquisition  dur 
ing  the  Middle  Ages  (Lea), 
293 

History  of  the  People  of  the 
United  States  (McMaster), 
100,  118 

History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdi 
nand  and  Isabella  (Prescott), 
228,  229,  246 

History  of  the  Reign  of  Philip 
II.  (Prescott),  229 

History  of  the  United  States 
(Adams),  quoted,  157,  162 

History  of  the  United  States 
(Bancroft),  73,  228,  246 

History  of  the  United  States 
(Hildreth),  73 

History  of  the  United  States 
Navy  (Cooper),  134 


INDEX. 


379 


History  of  the  World '(Raleigh), 

followed,  58 
lliittory  of   Virginia  (Cooke), 

253,  262 
Hobbes,  Thomas,  influence  on 

American  literature,  96 
Hoffman,  Matilda,  120 
Holland,  influence  on  American 

literature,    81,    82,  85,    117, 

120-122,  124,  128,  231-233 
Holmes,   Oliver  Wendell,    11, 

160,  165,  211-218,  239,  240, 

312;  cited,  72,  177,  233,  242, 

246;    compared,    200,    218, 

328;     quoted,    167;     Life: 

(Brown)  245,  (Kennedy)  245; 

Life  and  Letters  (Morse), 245; 

Study  List,  244,  245 
Holy   Grail,    Tie  (Tennyson), 

compared,  244 
Homer,  compared,  320 
Homes  and  Haunts  of  our  Elder 

Poets  (Stoddard),  190 
Honeybee,     To    a     (Freueau), 

112 

Hood,  Thomas,  compared,  215 
Hoosier  Schoolmaster,  The  (Eg- 

gleston),  325 
Hopkinson,  Francis,  102 
Hopkinson,  Joseph,  102 
Horse  Shoe  Robinson  (Kenne 
dy),  254 
Hoars  in  a  Library  (Stephen), 

cited,  199 
House  of  the  Seven  Gables,  The 

(Hawthorne),  195 
Howard,  Blanche  Willis,  314, 

315 

Howe,  E.  W.,  325 
Howells,  William  Dean,  308, 

309,     311-313;     cited,     130; 

c  >mpared,  321 
Hotc  to  Tell  a  Story  (Clemens) 

140 
Iludibras    (Butler),    imitated, 

106 
Hume,  David,  mentioned,  86 


Humor.     See  AMERICAN   Hu- 

MOK. 

Humphrey  Clinker  (Smollett), 

mentioned,  188 
Hunt,  Leigh,  compared,  257 
Hutchiuson,    Col.,    compared, 

29 
Hutton,   Richard   Holt,   cited, 

199 

Hylas  (Taylor),  302 
Hymns   of  the  Marshes  (Lan- 

ier),  281 
Hyperion    (Longfellow),    183, 

184,  242 


Ichdbod  (Whittier),  245,  247 
Idealistic  philosophy,  163 
Iliad,  The  (trans.  Bryant)  143 
Indiana,  literature  in,  261 
Indian  Burying  Ground,  The 

(Freneau),  107,  112 
Indians  and  Indian  legends, 
influence  on  and  relation  to 
American  literature,  107, 
110,  179,  222,  234,  235,  256, 
310 

Inferno  (Dante),  compared,  60 
Innocents  Abroad,  The  (Clem 
ens),  329,  330 

International  novel,  the,  314 
In  the  Harbor  (Longfellow), 

184 

Irving,  Pierre  M.,  cited,  129 
Irving,  Washington,  10,  11, 
115-130,  141,  142,  144,  148, 
151,  179,  242,  284,  289,  306, 
310;  compared,  121,  140,  152, 
212,  229,  259,  264,  328;  the 
father  of  American  prose, 
116,  284;  Life:  (Hill)  129, 
(P.  M.Irving)  129,  (Warner) 
94,  117,  129;  Study  List,  129, 
130 
Irving,  William,  119 


380 


IKDEX. 


Italy,  influence  on  American 
literature,  182,  183,  185,  195, 
196,  312;  poetic  instinct  in, 
61 


Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  314 

James,  Henry,  309,  311,  313, 
314;  cited,  178,  199,  244 

Jamestown,  settlement  of  Vir 
ginia  at,  15 

Jane  Talbot  (C.  B.  Brown),  109 

Janvier,  Thomas  A.,  308 

Jay,  John,  94 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  95-99,  118, 
150;  Life:  (Morse)  99, 
(Schouler)  99;  Study  List, 
99;  Works  (Ford's  ed.),  98, 
99 

Jesuits  in  North  America,  The 
(Parkman),  235 

Jewett,  Sarah  Orne,  314 

John  of  Barneveld,  Life  of 
(Motley),  246 

Johns  Hopkins  University, 
262,  278,  315 

Johnson,  Capt.  Edward,  quot 
ed,  26 

Johnson,  Samuel,  compared, 
213 

Johnston,  Richard  Malcolm, 
261,  319 

"Josh  Billings."  See  SHAW, 
HENHY  W. 

Julian,  cited.  55 

Julius  C(fsar  (Shakespeare), 
imitated,  71 

Junto,  the,  85 


K 

Kalevala,  The,  imitated,  186 
Kalin,  Peter  de,  quoted,  75 
Kavanagh  (Longfellow),  quot 
ed,  186 


Keats,  John,  compared,  203 

Keith,  George,  68 

Kemble,  John,  mentioned,  119 

Kennedy,  JohnPeudleton,  254, 
267 

Kennedy,  William  S.  (?),  cited, 

^245 

Kentucky,  the  literature  of, 
261,  319 

Key,  Francis  Scott,  102 

King,  Charles,  325 

King,  Grace,  319 

Kirk,  Ellen  Olney,  314 

Kirk,  John  Foster,  277 

Kirkland,  Joseph,  325 

Knickerbocker  school  of  liter 
ature,  11,  140.  See  also  IRV 
ING,  W. ;  NEW  YOKK. 


Laboulaye,  Edouard,  quoted, 81 

Lady  of  the  Aroostook,  The 
(Howells),  313 

La  GriseUe  (Holmes),  215,  244 

Lamb,  Charles,  compared,  213 

Lang,  Andrew,  cited,  275,  327 

Lanier,  Robert  S.,  mentioned, 
276 

Lanier,  Sidney,  261,  275-283; 
compared,  257;  Biography 
(Baskervill),  283;  Memorial 
(Ward),  283 ;  Study  List,  283 

Lapland,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  186 

Lars,  a  Pastoral  of  Norway 
(Taylor),  292,  302 

La  Salle,  or  the  Discovery  of 
the  Great  West  (Parkman), 
235 

Last  Leaf,  The  (Holmes),  214, 
215,  244 

Last  of  the  Mohicans,  The 
(Cooper),  136,  139 

Last  Walk  in  Autumn,  The 
(Whittier),  224 


INDEX. 


381 


Lathrop, George  Parsons,  cited, 
199 

Laua  Deo  (VVhittier,)  223,  245 

Lea,  Henry  C. ,  293 

Leather  stocking  Talcs,  The 
(Cooper),  136,  137,  139,  140 

Leaves  of  Grans  (Whitman), 
297,  298,  303 

Led  Horse  Claim,  The  (Foote), 
325 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  21,  93, 
150;  quoted,  78 

Legend  of  Brittany  (Lowell), 
203 

Lei/end  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  The 
(Irving),  123,  125,  129 

Leland,  Charles  Godfrey,  286, 
287 

Letters  of  a  British  Spy  ( Wirt), 
253 

Letters  to  Dead  A  utJiors  ( Lang), 
cited,  275 

Letter  to  GeorgeWythe  (Jeffer 
son),  98 

Liberator,  2%e  (Garrison),  men 
tioned,  2U2 

Library  of  American  Litera 
ture  (Stedman  and  Hutcliin- 
son),  cited  26,  (51,  65,  112 

Life  in  the  Iron  Mills  ( Rebecca 
H.  D.ivis),  314 

Life  of—  — .  For  Lives  of 
authors  mentioned  in  this 
volume,  see  their  names. 

Liyeia  (Poe),  272,  274 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  167,238,329 

Lincolnshire,  England,  influ 
ence  on  American  settle 
ment,  23 

Link,  Samuel  A.,  cited,  250, 
262 

Linnaeus,  Charles  von,  quoted, 
68 

Lippincott's  Magazine,  277,  278 

Literary  and  Social  Essays 
(Curtis),  130,  148,  177,  190, 
199,  244,  245 


Literary  Emancipation  of  the 
West,  The  (Garland),  326 

Literary  Histoiy  of  tlce  Ameri 
can  Revolution,  The  (Tyler), 
112 

Literary  movements,  causes  of, 
156 

Literary  Recreations  (Whit- 
tier),  190 

Literati  of  New  York,  The 
(Poe),  268 

Literature,  what  is,  7 

Literature  and  Life  (Whip- 
pie),  148 

Literature  of  New  York,  The 
(Poe),  151 

Little  Giffen  (F.O.Ticknor),  261 

Little  Sandpiper,  The  (Thax- 
ter),  316 

Livermore,  T.  S.,  cited,  140 

Locke,  David  Ross,  328 

Locke,  John,  influence  on 
American  literature,  96 

Locker-  Lam  pson,  Frederick, 
compared,  245 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  315; 
cited.  73,  247;  quoted,  17, 
19,  237 

Logan,  James,  68 

London,  a  literary  center,  149 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wads- 
worth,  4,  11,  144,  151,  156, 
160,  165,  178-190,  208,  240- 
243,  284,  312,  315;  com 
pared,  107,  185,  187,  188, 
190,  193,  202,  208,  218,  222, 
259  264,301;  Life;  , Samuel 
Longfellow)  181,  189,  190, 
(Robertson)  190,  Study  List, 
189,  190 

Longfellow,  Rev.  Samuel, 
cited,  181,  189,  190 

Longstreet,  A.  B.,  261 

Lost  Leaders  (Lang),  quoted, 
326 

Louisiana,  literature  in,  254, 
261,  purchase  of,  114,  137 


382 


INDEX. 


Lounsbury,  Thomas  R.,  293, 
294;  cited,  140 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  7,  11, 
160,  167,  200,  202-211,  216, 
240-243,  312,  315;  cited, 
130,  140,  148,  177,  178;  com 
pared,  211,  218,  220,  221, 
258,  264,  268,  301,  328; 
quoted,  31,  57,  62,  154,  161, 
166,  171;  Letters  of  (Norton), 
244;  Recollections  and  Ap 
preciations  of  (Underwood), 
244;  Study  List,  244 

Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,  The 
(Hart'e),  323 

Lyra  Elegantiarum  (Locker- 
Lampson),  cited,  245 

Lyrical  Ballads  (Wordsworth), 
mentioned,  141 


M 

Mabel  Martin  (Whittier),  222 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington, 
cited,  35.  69 

McFingal  (Trtimbull),  104,  106 

McMaster,  John  Bach,  315; 
cited,  92,  100,  118,  159 

Madison,  James,  94,  99,  150 

Magnolia  Christi  Americana, 
29,  47,  50-52,  56 

Making  of  the  Nation,  The 
(Walker),  100 

Mandeville,  Bertrand,  men 
tioned,  85 

Manrique,  Coplas  de  (trans. 
Longfellow),  184 

Manuscript  found  in  a  Bottle 
(Poe),  266 

Marble  Faun,  The  (Haw 
thorne),  192,  195-199,  243 

Marco  Bozzaris  (Halleck),  152 

"  Marion  Harland."  See  TER- 
HTJNE,  M.  V. 

"  Mark  Twain."  See  CLEM 
ENS,  S.  L, 


Marlowe,    Christopher,     com 
pared,  264 
Marmion   (Scott),   mentioned, 

107 

Mars'  Chan'  (Page),  320 
Marshall,  John,  22,  150,  253 
Marston,  John,  quoted,  16 
Martin  Faber  (Simms),  255 
Marvin,  Rev.  A.  P.,  cited,  72 
Masque  of  the  Red  Death,  Tlie 

(Poe),  271,  274 

Massachusetts,  as  a  literary 
center,  239-241  (see  also 
BOSTON;  CAMBRIDGE;  COX- 
CORD;  PLYMOUTH;  SALEM); 
in  the  Revolution,  77,  78; 
the  settlement  of,  15,  25,  27, 
29,  33,  42-49 

Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  46-53, 
62  162;  compared,  66,  72, 
83,  quoted,  29,  47-49,  56, 
57,  60,  82;  Life:  (Peabody) 
49.  (Wendell)  72;  Life  and 
Times  (Marvin),  72;  Study 
List,  72 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase,  46-48 
Mather,  Rev.   Richard,  46,  47, 

54 

Mather,  Rev    Samuel,  47 
Matthews,  Brander,  mentioned, 

309 
Maud  Muller  (Whittier),  cited, 

245 

"Mayflower,"  the,  25,  42 
Meh  Lady  (Page),  320 
Memoires  de  Franklin  (Auto 
biography,    ed.    Laboulaye), 
quoted,  81 
Memoir  of    Motley  (Holmes), 

233 
Memoranda  During   the   War 

(Whitman),  297 
Men  and  Letters  (Scudder),  190 
Merry  Mount  (Motley),  230 
Michael  Angelo,  compared,  60 
Middle      Ages,     influence     on 
American  literature,  183 


INDEX. 


383 


Middle  Colonies,  literature  of 
the,  67-72,  78 

Middle  States,  the  literature 
of  the,  9,  11,102, 113  etseq., 
150,  151,  155-159,  165,  242, 
284-304,  309,  314-317,  332 

Niggles  (llarte),  323 

Miller,  Cincinnatus  Ileiney 
("  Joaquin  Miller  "),  323,  324 

Milton,  John,  19,  30,42;  cited, 
179,  180;  compared,  281; 
imitated,  69,  145,  146 

Minister's  Charge,  The  (How- 
ells),  313 

Miscellanies  (Prescott),  112 

Monroe,  James,  150 

Montcalm  and  Wolfe  (Park- 
man),  235 

Moore,  Frank,  cited,  112 

Moore,  Thomas,  imitated,  266, 
mentioned,  107,  157 

Moritnri  Salutamus  (Longfel 
low),  189 

Morley,  John,  cited,  178 

Morris,  George  P.,  154 

Morris, William,  compared,  257 

Morse,  John  T. ,  Jr.,  cited,  92, 
100,  245 

Mortal  Antipathy,  A  (Holmes), 
217 

Mortons  Hope  (Motley),  230 

Mortuary  poetry,  54-57 

Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse 
(Hawthorne),  168,  194,  199; 
quoted,  166,  174 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  160,  200 
230-233,  243;  Correspond 
ence  (Curtis),  246;  Memoir 
(Holmes),  246;  Study  List, 
246 

Murfree,  Mary  N.  ("  Charles 
Egbert  Crad'dock"),  318,  319 

Music,  in  New  England,  55 

My  Literary  Passions  (How- 
ells),  130 

My  Lost  Youth  (Longfellow), 
181,  186,  189 


My  Springs  (Lanier),  282,  283 

Mystery  of  Marie  llogel,  The 
(Poe),  269 

Mystic  Trumpeter,  The  (Whit 
man),  303 

My  Study  Windows  (Lowell), 
178 

N 

Narrative  and  Critical  History 
of  America  (\Vinsor),  73 

Narrative  of  Arthur  Gordon 
Pym,  The  (Poe),  270 

"  Nasby,  Petroleum  V."  See 
LOCKE,  D.  R. 

Nation,  The,  308 

Nature  (Emerson),  168,  169, 
177,  202,  214 

Nature  (Longfellow),  189 

Negro,  influence  on  American 
literature,  311,  317-320.  See 
also  SLAVERY 

New  England,  the  "academic" 
families  of,  167,  202,  212, 
218,  219,  240-242,  263;  as  a 
literary  center,  239-243  (see 
also  BOSTON;  CAMBRIDGE, 
CONCORD  ;  MASSACHUSETTS  ; 
PLYMOUTH;  SALEM);  early 
poetry  of,  53-61;  influence 
on  American  literature,  140, 
141,  146,  147,  190-192,  311, 
313-317;  the  literature  of, 
11,  22-26,  28,  30,  34,  41-67, 
102,  149-151,  154^156,  159- 
247,  252,  284-286,  307.  314, 
320,  321,  332;  music  in,  55; 
the  settlement  of,  15,  25,  27, 
29,  33-35,  42-49 

New  England  Courant,The,  84 

New  Engla  nd's  First-  Fru  its ,  25 

New  England  Two  Centuries 
Ago  (Lowell),  31 

New  Jersey,  150 

Newspaper,  the  first,  in  Am 
erica,  26 


INDEX. 


Newtown,  Mass.,  founding  of 
Harvard  College  at,  26.  See 
also  CAMBRIDGE 

"  New  World  of  Letters 
The,"  128 

New  York  (city)  as  a  literary 
center,  11,  21,  140,  151,  152", 
154,  157-160,  250,  254,  256, 
289,  307-310,  316,  317; 
founding  of,  31;  History  of 
(Irving),  120-123;  literature 
in,  285,  286,  289,  296,  297 

New  York  Review  and  Athe- 
nceum  Magazine,  The,  142 

New  York  (State),  settlement 
of,  23,  31,  32,  35 

New  York  Tribune,  The,  288 

Nichol,  John,  cited,  112 

Nil  Nisi  Bonum  (Thackeray), 
cited,  130 

North,  the  literature  of  the, 
9-11,  22-26,  28,  30,  32-35, 
41-49,  72,  251 ;  influence  on 
American  literature,  79.  See 
also  MASSACHUSETTS  ;  NEW 
ENGLAND 

North  American  Review,  Tl/e, 
142,  155,  209;  quoted,  133 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  200; 
cited.  238,  244 

Norway,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  302 

Notes  on  Virginia  (Jefferson), 
97,98 

Nubia  (Taylor),  292,  302 

Nuremburg  (Longfellow),  186 

Nye,  Edgar  Wilson  ("Bill 
Nye"),  328 

Nymphidia  (Drayton),  com 
pared,  153 


O 

Obiter  Dicta  (Birrell),  cited, 178 
0  Captain,  My  Captain  (Whit 
man),  303 


O'Connor's  Child  (Campbell), 
mentioned,  107 

Odyssey,  The  (trans.  Bryant), 
143 

Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,  The 
(Longfellow),  186 

Old  Ironsides  (Holmes),  214, 
244 

Old  Oaken  Bucket,  The  (Wood- 
worth),  154 

Old  Regime  in  Canada,  The 
(Parkman),  235 

One-IIoss  Shay,  The  (Holmes), 
215,  244 

Old  South,  The  (Page),  251, 
260,  262 

One  Summer  (Howard),  314 

Orations  and  Arguments  by 
English  and  American  States 
men  (Bradley),  247 

Orations  of  Edward  Everett, 
246 

Oratory,  influence  on  and  rela 
tion  to  literature,  156,  235- 
239 

Oregon  Trail,  The  (Parkman), 
234 

Orientalism,  influence  on  Am 
erican  literature,  166 

Ormond(£.  B.  Brown),  109 

"  Orphic  utterances,"  171,  172 

Ossoli,  Countess.  See  FULLER, 
MARGARET. 

Otis,  James,  77,  93,  150;  Brief 
Biographical  Memoir  of  Life 
of  i Tudor),  77 

Otsego  Lake,  131,  137,  289 

Our  Dear  Old  Home  (Haw 
thorne),  242 

Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe 
(Holmes),  242 

Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat,  The 
(Harte),  323 

Outlooks  on  Society,  Literature, 
and  Politics  (Whipple),  ,44 

Out  of  the  Cradle  Endlessly 
Rocking  (Whitman),  303 


INDEX. 


385 


Outre- Mer  (Longfellow),  182, 

183,  242 

Overland  Monthly,  The,  323 
Over  the  Teacups  (Holmes),  216 
Ovid  (trans.  Sandys),  40 
Oxford     University,    influence 
on  American  literature,  24; 
recognizes  American  litera 
ture,  125 


Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  249, 
251,  260,  26'3,  319,  320 

Pages  from  an  Old  Volume  of 
Life  (Holmes),  72 

Palfrey,  John  Qorham,  cited, 
55,  73 

Parker,  Rev.  Thomas,  quoted, 
29 

Parkman,  Francis,  200,  233- 
235;  cited,  73;  Study  List, 
246 

Parliament  of  Fowles,  The 
(Chaucer),  imitated,  71 

Partial  Portraits  (James),  178 

Partisan,  The  (Simms),  256 

Par  ton,  James,  cited,  92 

Passionate  Pilgrim,  A  (James), 
313 

Pathfinder,  The  (Cooper),  135, 
136,  139 

Patriotism,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  79.  101  etseq. , 
113-115,  149,  153,  201-207, 
210,  211,  214,  223,  236-239, 
255,  256,  294,  297-299,  303 

Paulding,  James  K.,  119,  152 

Paul  Revere 's  Hide  (Longfel 
low),  189 

Peabody,  Oliver  W.  B., quoted, 
49 

Peal  of  Hells,  On  a  (Thacker 
ay),  cited,  140 

Pen'n,  William,  32,  33,  68 

Pennsylvania,     in     literature, 


110;  in  the  Revolution,  77, 
78;  literature  in,  67-72,  157, 
285-293;  settlement  of,  23, 
32-35.  See  also  PHILADEL 
PHIA. 

Pennsylvania  Freeman,  The, 
221 

Pennsylvania  Gazette.  The,  85 

Percival,  James  G.,  155 

"  Petroleum  V.  Nasby."  See 
LOCKE,  D.  R. 

Phelps,  Elizabeth  Stuart.  See 
WARD,  E.  S.  P. 

Philadelphia,  as  a  literary  cen 
ter,  20,  32-35,  68-70,  85,  86, 
151,  156-160,  250  ;  influence 
on  literature,  150;  poetry  in, 
69-71.  See  also  PENNSYL 
VANIA. 

Philadelphia  Library,  the,  86 

PItiladelpJda  Magazines  and 
their  Contributors,  The 
(Smyth),  158 

Philistine,  the  American,  330 

Phillips,  Wendell,  201,  236, 
238;  compared,  238 

Phips,  Sir  William,  men- 
tioned,  55 

Pickard,  Samuel  T.,  cited,  246 

Pierrepont,  Sarah,  mentioned, 
65 

Pike  County  Ballads  (Hay), 
324 

Pilot,  TJie  (Cooper),  134,  138, 
139 

Pinknev,  Edward  Coate,  155, 
253 

Pioneers,  0  Pioneers  (Whit, 
man),  303 

Pioneers,  The  (Cooper),  131, 
134,  136,  137 

Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New 
World  (Parkmau),  235 

Pioneers  of  Southern  Litera 
ture  (Link),  250,  262 

Pirate,  The  (Scott),  compared, 
138 


INDEX. 


Plato,  influence  on  American 
literature,  166 

Play  of  the  Weather,  The  (Hey- 
wood),  imitated,  59 

Plymouth,  Mass.,  the  settle 
ment  of,  15,  27,  29,  42,  43 

Poe,  David,  264,  265 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  151,  251, 
260,  262-275,  285,  310;  com- 
pared,  111,  275,  280,  310; 
criticised,  278  ;  Life  (Steel - 
man  and  Woodberry),  274, 
275;  Study  List,  274,  275 

Poems  of  the  Orient  (Taylor), 
292 

Poet  at  the  Breakfast- Table, 
The  (Holmes),  216 

Poetry,  growth  of,  150;  patri 
otic  stimulus  to  American, 
101  et  seq. 

Poetry,  a  Metrical  Essay 
(Holmes),  214 

Poets  and  Novelists  (Smith), 
199 

Poets  of  America  (Stedrnan), 
148,  178,  190,  244-246,  275, 
291,  302 

Political  literature,  92  et  seq. 

Politics,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  195,  251 

Poor  Richard's  Almanach 
(Franklin),  87-89,  92;  com 
pared,  329 

Pope,  Alexander,  compared, 
206 ;  imitated,  69,  71,  91, 
105,  106,  145  ;  influence  on 
American  literature,  164, 
252;  decline  of  his  influence, 
145 

Portfolio,  The,  157,  158 

Portland  Gazette,  The,  181 

Praed,  Winthrop  Mackworth, 
compared,  215 

Prairies,  The  (Bryant),  147 

Prairies,  The  (Cooper),  136, 
137 

Precaution  (Cooper),  132,  152 


Presbyterian  Review,  The,  283 

Prescott,  William  Hickling, 
160,200,228-230;  cited,  112, 
compared,  233  ;  Life  (Tick- 
nor),  246;  Miscellanies,  112; 
Study  List,  246 

Present  Crisis,  The  (Lowell), 
204,  244 

Present  State  of  Virginia,  The 
(Beverly),  cited,  27 

Prince  Deukalion  (Taylor),  290 

Prince  of  Parthia,  The  (God 
frey),  71 

Printing-press,  introduction 
into  America,  18,  19,  26,  34 

Prior,  Matthew,  compared, 
215,  245 

"  Priscilla,"  180;  compared, 
321 

Professor  at  the  Breakfast- 
Table,  The  (Holmes),  216 

Prophet,  The  (Taylor),  290 

Prose  Writers  of  America, 
(Griswold),  246 

Proverbs,  88 

Psalm  of  Life  (Longfellow), 
184,  189 

Psalm  of  the  West,  The  (Lan- 
ier),  278,  281,  283 

Psalms,  metrical  versions  of 
the,  26,  54,  55,  70 

Puritan  influences  on  literature, 
14-16,  19-35,  41-49,  52,  53, 
55,  59,  63,  65,  72,  82,  83,  127, 
140,  141,  147,  150,  155,  156, 
159,  160  et  seq.,  187, 190-193, 
198,203,  212,  217-219,  239- 
241,  243,  316 

Putnam,  George  P.,  cited,  130 


Q 


Quakers,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  33,  35,  67,  68, 
218,  219,  221,  222,  226,  287, 
288,303 


INDEX. 


38: 


Quaker    Widow,   The  (Taylor), 

202 
Questions    at     Issue    (Gosse), 

cited,  275 


R 

Radcliffe,  Ann,  110 

Rain  in,  Summer  (Longfellow), 

189 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  followed, 

58 
Raven,    The  (Poe),    263,   272, 

274 

Read,  Thomas  Buchanan,  286 
Realistic  school  of  fiction,  the, 

310  et  seq. 

Reason,  an  age  of,  84 
Recollections  of  Eminent  Men 

(Whipple),  177,  246 
Recollections      of     Hawthorne 

(Bridges),  199 

Red  Rover,  The  (Cooper),  139 
Reed,  Henry,  292.  293 
Reply  to  lla'yne  (Webster),  236, 

247 
Representative  Men  (Emerson), 

177 
Republic,  the  literature  of  the, 

113  et  seq. 
Revenge  of  Ilamish,  The  (Lau- 

ier),  282,  284 
Revolution,  the,  influence   on 

American  literature,  10,  78, 

79,  92  < 'l  seq.,  101  et  seq.,  149, 

150,  236  ;  in  literature,  255, 

256 

Rha'cus  (Lowell),  203 
Rhys,  Ernest,  cited,  303 
Richardson,  Prof.  Charles  F. , 

cited,  72,  112,  2^9 
"  Rights  of  man,  the,"  101,103 
Riglits  of  the  British  Colonies 

Asserted  and  Proved  (Otis), 

77 
Rlley,  James  Whitcouib,  324 


Ripley,  George,  172,  178,  201; 
Life  (Frothinghain),  178 

Rip  Van  Winkle  (Irving),  123, 
126,  128,  129 

Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,  The 
(Howells),  313 

Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  The 
(Motley),  231-233,  246 

Rising  Glory  of  America.  The 
(Freneau  and  Brackenridge), 
103 

Rittenhouse,  David,  69 

Robertson,  E.  S.,  cited,  190 

Robertson,  William,  mention 
ed,  86 

Robinson  Crusoe  (Defoe),  in 
fluence  on  American  litera 
ture,  118  ;  mentioned,  138 

Rob  of  the  Bowl  (Kennedy),  254 

Rob'Roy  (Scott),  compared,  137 

Rodolph  (Pinkney),  155 

Romance,  the  dawn  of,  in 
American  literature,  108 

Rome,  influence  on  American 
literature,  185;  the  literature 
of,  333 

Romeo  and  Juliet  (Shake 
speare),  compared,  153 

Kossetti,  William  Michael, 
cited,  295,  303 

Roundabout  Papers  (Thack 
eray),  cited,  130,  140 

Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  influ 
ence  on  American  literature, 
96 

Roxy  (Eggleston),  325 

Ruskin,  John,  mentioned,  215 

Russell,  Irwin,  319,  320 

Russia,  influence  on  American 
literature,  310 


8 


Sackville,    Thomas,    imitated, 

71 
Sainte-Beuve,  C,  A.,  cited,  92 


INDEX. 


St.    Louis,    Mo.,  as  a  literary 

center,  307 

Salem,  Mass.,  191,  193,  195 
Salem  witchcraft,  52,  53 
Salmagundi  (Irving  and  Paul- 
ding),  119,  152 
Sandys,  George,  40,  41 
"  Saunders,  Mr.  Ricliard,"  88 
Scarlet    Letter,      The     (Haw 
thorne),  191,  193,  195,  197, 
198,  199 

Scepticism,  influence  on  Amer 
ican  literature,  84,  85.  91 
Schouler,  James,  cited,  100 
Science  of  English  verse,  The 

(Lanier),  278 

Scotland,  its  literature  com 
pared,  243;  poetic  instinct  in, 
61 

Scott,   Sir   Walter,   compared, 
135,  138,  139,  213,  224,  290, 
321;    mentioned,   107,    109, 
110;  quoted,  121 
Scribner's  Magazine,  308 
Scudder,  Horace  Elisha,  cited, 

190,  302 

Seasons,    The   (Thomson),    an 
ticipated,  59;  imitated,  69 
Shaftesbury,    Lord,    imitated, 

84,  91 

Shakespeare,    William,     com 
pared,    153,    320,    321,  332; 
imitated,    71,    145 ;    literary 
debt  to  America,  40  ;   Works 
(ed.  Furness),  293 
Shaw,  Henry  W.  ("Josh  Bill 
ings"),  211,  328,  329 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,   men 
tioned,  111,  112  ;  Life  (Dow- 
den),  112 

Shelton,  Mrs.,  267 
SJieplierd    of  King  Admetus, 

The  (Lowell),  203 
Sheridan's  Ride  (Read),  286 
Ship  of  Earth,The  (Lanier), 283 
Siddons,  Mrs.,  mentioned,   119 
Sill,  Edward  Rowland,  316 


Simms,  William  Gilmore,  107, 

155,    254-256 ;    cited,    262  ; 

compared,     259,    264,    318 ; 

Life  (Trent),  251 
Sinners  in    the   Hands   of  an 

Angry  God  (Edwards),  65 
Skeleton  in  Armor,  The  (Long 
fellow),  189 
Sketch  Book,  The  (irving),  123, 

124,  129,  142 

Skipper  Ireson's  Eide  (Whit- 
tier),  cited,  245 
Slavery,  influence  on  American 

literature,  97,  98,  201,   202, 

204,  205,  220-224,  236,  247, 

249,  250,  317-320 
Sloane,  William  M.,  cited,  73, 

246 

Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  308,  309 
Smith,  G.  Barnett,  cited,  199, 

245 
Smith,     Capt.     «.ohn,    37-39; 

Life   (Warner),    72;    Study 

List,  72 
Smollett,    Tobias,    mentioned, 

138 
Smyth,  Albert  H.,  cited,  158, 

287,  289,  302 
Snow-Bound  (Whittier),   220, 

225,  245 

Social  reform,  171-173 
Society  life,  the  literature  of, 

311-814 
Song  for  the  Jacquerie  (Lanier), 

282,  283 
Song  of  Marion's  Men  (Bryant), 

147 
Song  of  the  Camp,  A  (Taylor), 

292,  302 
Song  of  the  Chattahoochee,  The 

(Lanier),  28.',  283 
So?igs  and  Ballads  of  the  Am 
erican    Devolution    (Moore), 

112 

Songs  of  Labor  (Whittier),  225 
Songs  of  the  Sierras  (Miller), 

323 


INDEX. 


389 


Songs  of  the  South  (ed.  Clarke), 
262 

South,  education  in,  249-252  ; 
influence  on  American  litera 
ture,  236,238;  the  literature 
of  the,  9,  11,  18-22,  34,  37, 
39-41,  102,  150,  155,  156, 
165,  248-286,  308,  316-322, 
332 

South  Carolina,  literature  in, 
254,  255-259 

Southern  Liter  (try  Messenger, 
The,  260,  267 

Southern  Literature  (ed.  Man 
ly),  cited,  262 

Southern  Quarterly.  The,  258 

Southern  lieview,  The,  258 

Southern  Writers  (Basker- 
vill),  262 

Font  Ley,  Robert,  imitated,  173 

Spain,  influence  on  American 
literature,  124,  125,  128,  182 
-185,  200,  229,  230,  310 

Sparks,  Jared,  49,  112 

Specimen  Days  in  America 
(Whitman),  303 

Spectator,  The,  imitated,  83, 
85,  119 

Spectre  Bridegroom,  The  (Ir 
ving),  129 

Spenser,  Edmund,  compared, 
198  ;  imitated,  71 

Spofford,  Harriet  Prescott,  314 

Sprague,  Charles,  155 

Xpy,  The  (Cooper),  133,  139, 
142 

Stamp  Act,  the,  78 

Stanzas  on  Freedom  (Lowell), 
204,  244 

Staples,  Samuel  E.,  cited,  55 

Star- Spangled  Banner,  The 
(Key),  102,  114 

State  sovereignty,  decline  of 
the  idea,  115 

Steam,  influence  on  American 
literature,  125 

Stedinan,    Edmund    Clarence, 


cited,  26,  61.  65,  112,  148, 
178,  190,  244-246,  273,  275, 
302;  mentioned,  308;  quoted, 
266,  291 

Stelligeri,  and  Other  Essays 
Concerning  America  (Wen 
dell),  244,  246 

Stephen,  Leslie,  cited,  199 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  com 
pared,  44 

Stockton,  Frank  R.,  308 

Stoddard,  Richard  Henry,  307; 
cited,  190,  246,  270,  274 

Story  of  Kennet,  The  (Taylor), 
292,  302 

Stout  Gentleman,  The  (Irving), 
129 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  com 
pared,  201 

Strachy,  William,  40 

Stratford  on  Awn  (Irving),  129 

Stuart,  Ruth  McEnery    319 

Studies  in  Bryant  (Alden),  148 

Studies  in  Literature (Dowden), 
cited,  304 

Studies  of  Irving,  1 30 

Study  of  Hawthorne  (Lathrop), 
199 

Summary  View  of  the  Rights  of 
America,  A  (Jefferson),  97 

Sumner,  Charles,  236,  238 

"Sunnyside,"  126,  127 

Sunrise  (Lanier),  279 

Superstition,  161 

Swallow  Barn  (Kennedy),  254 

Sweden,  influence  on  Ameri 
can  literature,  32, 183,  185 

Swedenborg,  Emanuel,  in 
fluence  on  American  litera 
ture,  166 

Swift,  Rev.  Jonathan,  com 
pared,  121  ;  imitated,  91,  121 

Sylvester,  Joshua,  imitated,  59 

Symonds,  John  Addiugtou, 
cited,  295,  300,  304 

Symphony,  The  (Lanier),  277, 
278,  281 


390 


INDEX. 


Tales  of  a  Traveller  (Irving), 
129 

Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn  (Long 
fellow),  185-187 

Tales  oftheAlhambra  (Irving), 
124,  129 

Tamerlaine  (Poe),  265 

Tampa  Robins  (Lanier),  281, 
283 

Tanglewood  Tales  (Haw 
thorne),  199 

Taylor,  Bayard,  272,  286-292, 
307  ;  quoted,  294;  Life 
(Smyth),  287,  289,  302;  Life 
and  Letters  (M.  H.  Taylor 
and  H.  E.  Scudder),  302 

Taylor,  Marie  Hansen,  302 

Telling  the  Bees  (Whittier), 
224,  225,  245 

Tempest,  Tlie  (Shakespeare), 
American  incident  in,  40 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  compared, 
203,  208,  226,  244 

"Tenth  Muse,  The."  See 
BRADSTREET,  ANNE. 

Terliune,  Marv  Virginia  ("Ma 
rion  Harland  "),  259,  260 

Thackeray,  William  Make 
peace,  cited,  130,  140  ;  com 
pared,  215, 244  ;  quoted,  128 

Thanatopsis  (Bryant),  141,  142, 
144-147 

Thanet,  Octave.  See  FRENCH, 
ALICE. 

Thaxter,  Celia,  316 

Theh  Wedding  Journey  (How- 
ells),  312 

Theology,  predominance  in 
New  England  literature, 
160,  164 

Thirty  Tears'  War,  The 
(Motley),  232 

Thomas/Gabriel,  67 

Thomson,  James,  anticipated, 
59  ;  imitated,  69,  106 


Thoreau,  Henry  David,  165, 
168,  200,  201 

Three  Men  of  Letters  (Tyler), 
112 

Thwaites,  Reuben  Gold,  cited, 
73 

Ticknor,  Frank  O.,  261; 
Study  List,  262 

Ticknor,  George,  200,  246 

Tiger  Lilies  (Lanier),  277 

Timrod,  Henry,  256-259;  com 
pared,  264;  Study  List,  262 

Tour  of  the  Prairies  (Irving), 
125 

Town-meeting,  the,  influence 
on  American  literature,  27, 
28 

Transcendental  philosophy, 
Iffietseg^,  171-174,  202 

Travels  into  North  America 
(De  Kalm),  quoted,  75 

Treadmill,  Song,  The  (Holmes), 
214,  244 

Trent,  W.  P.,  cited,  251..  262 

True  Relation  of.  .  .  Occur 
rences  and  Accidents .  .  .  in 
Virginia  (Smith),  37 

Trumbull,  John,  102,  104,  106, 
112,  150 

Trust  (Whittier),  quoted,  226 

Tryst,  The  (Thaxter),  316 

Tuckerman,  Henry,  200 

Tudor,  William,  Jr. ,  cited,  77 

"Twain,  Mark."  See  CLEM 
ENS,  S.  L. 

Twice-Told  Tales  (Hawthorne), 
193,  194,  199 

Twichell,  Rev.  J.  H.,  cited, 
72 

Tyler,  Prof.,  cited,  20,  24,  40, 
41,  72,  112 


U 

Ulalume  (Poe),  271,  272,  274 
Ultima  Thule  (Longfellow),  184 


IXDEX. 


391 


Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  (Stowe), 
201 

Underwood,  Francis  II.,  cited, 
244 

Unitarianism,  influence  on  lit 
erature,  161  et  seq. 

United  Netherlands,  the  (Mot 
ley),  232,  233 

United  States,  the  building 
of  a  national  literature,  113 
et  seq.,  130  ;  its  growth,  8  et 
s«q.,  78,  114,  115,  125; 
growth  of  national  spirit, 
9,  10,  75  et  seq.,  113-115; 
the  intellectual  center,  149  ; 
the  literary  future  of  the, 
333  ;  the  literature  of  the 
Republic,  10,  11  et  seq.;  lo 
cal  stamp  on  early  literature, 
9,  10 

United  States  Constitution, 
The,  113,  114,  150 

University  of  Pennsylvania, 
86 

University  of  Virginia,  99 


Variorum  Shakespeare  (Fur- 
ness),  293 

Verne,  Jules,  compared,  269 

Verplanck,  Julian  C.,  154 

Vers  de  societe,  245 

Views  Afoot  ;  or,  Europe  Seen 
with  Knapsack  and  Staff 
(Taylor),  288,  302 

Views  and  Reviews  (Henley), 
190 

Village  Blacksmith,  T/i«(Long- 
feliow),  189 

Virginia,  aristocratic  influences 
in,  17-22,  41  ;  Capt.  Smith 
on,  37-39  ;  influence  on 
American  literature,  77,  78, 
95-99,  150  ;  in  literature, 
319  ;  in  the  Revolution,  21, 


22;  literature  in,  156,  248- 
250,  254,  259,  260,  262,  285  ; 
prohibition  of  the  printing- 
press  in,  19  ;  settlement  of, 
15-22,  25,  27,  37,  40,  41 

Virginia  (Cooke),  cited,  73 

Virginia  Comedians,  The 
(Cooke),  259 

Vision  of  Columbus,  The  (Bar 
low),  103,  104 

Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  The 
(Lowell),  207,  244 

Voices  of  the  Night  (Longfel 
low),  184 


W 

Walker,  Francis  A,  cited,  100 

Wallace,  Lew,  324 

Walt    Wliitman   as   Poet  and 

Person  (Burroughs),  304 
Ward,         Elizabeth         Stuart 

Phelps,  314 
Ward,  William  Hayes,  cited, 

283 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  308  ; 

cited,     72,     94,     117,     129, 

130 
War    of     1812,     influence    on 

American  literature,  78,  79, 

101  et  seq.,  114 
War  Poetry  of  the  South,  (ed. 

Simms),  cited,  262 
Washers  of  the   Shroud,   The 

(Lowell),  207,  244 
Washington,    George,  22,  80, 

81,  116,  117  ;  compared,  91  ; 

Life  :  (Irving)  126,  127,  (Mar 
shall)  253 
Waterfowl,  Ode  to  a  (Bryant), 

142,  147 

Watson,  William,  cited,  244 
Wearing    of  the    Gray,    The 

(Cooke),  259 
Webster,      Daniel,      236-238  ; 

Great  Speeches  and  Orations, 


392 


INDEX. 


246,  247  ;  Life  :  (Curtis)  247, 
(Lodge)  237,  247  ;  Study 
last,  246,  247;  Work's, 
247 

Weld,  Thomas,  26 

Wendell,  Barrett,  cited,  72, 
244,  246 

West,  the  growth  of,  306;  in 
fluence  on  American  litera 
ture,  125,  128,  316;  the  liter 
ature  of,  11,  285,  286,  307, 
322-326,  332 

Westminster  Abbey  (Addison), 
compared,  123 

Westminster  Abbey  (Irving), 
compared,  123,  129 

When  Lilacs  Last  in  the  Door- 
yard  Bloomed  (Whitman), 
303 

Whipple,  Edwin  P.,  200,  cited, 
130,  148,  177,  178,  190,  199, 
244-247 

Whitman,  Walt,  294-304;  com 
pared,  188,  286;  Life:  (Burke) 
296,  304,  (Clarke)  304;  Works 
(ed.  Rossetti)  303,  (Selected, 
Rhys)  303,  (Selected,  Web 
ster)  303 

Whitman,  a  Study  (Bur 
roughs),  304 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  160, 
218-227;  cited,  190,  247;  com 
pared,  200,  258;  Life  and 
Letters  (Pickard),  245,  246; 
Study  List,  245 

Wieland,  or  The  Transforma 
tion  (C.  B.  Brown),  109 

Wigglesworth,  Michael,  53, 
59-C3,  66,  162,  212;  com 
pared,  83 

Wild  Honeysuckle,  The  (Fre- 
neau),  107,  112 

Wilkins,  Mary  E.,  314 

William  Wilson  (Poe),  274 

Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  154, 
289 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  315 


Windsor  Forest  (Pope),  imi 
tated,  106 

Winslow,  Edward,  42 

Winsor,  Justin,  73,  315 

Winter  Piece,  A  (Bryant),  143, 
147 

Winthrop,  John,  43-45;  Life 
(Twichell),  72;  Study  List, 
72 

Wirt,  William,  253 

Witchcraft,  52,  53,  191,  192 

Wither,  George,  imitated, 
71 

With  the  Procession  (Fuller), 
325 

Wolfeit  Webber  (Irving),  129 

Wollstonecraft,  Mary,  fol 
lowed,  108,  109 

Woman's  Reason,  A  (Howells), 
313,  321 

Women,  discussion  of  their 
status  in  American  litera 
ture,  108,  109 

Wond-rs  of  the  Invisible  World, 
the  (Mather),  52,  53 

Wonder-working  Providence  of 
Zion's  Saviour  in  New  Eng 
land,  quoted,  26 

Woodberry,  George  E. ,  308  ; 
cited,  266,  274,  275 

Wood  bridge,  B.,  56 

Woodman,  Spare  that  Tree 
(Morris),  154 

Woodworth,  Samuel,  154 

Wordsworth,  William,  imi 
tated,  145,  146;  influence  on 
American  literature,  141, 
164,  166,  169;  mentioned, 
145,  293;  Works  (Reed), 
293 

Worthies  of  England  (Fuller), 
quoted,  39 

Wreck  of  the  Hesperus  (Long 
fellow),  189 

Writs  of  assistance,  77 

Wythe,  George,  Letter  to  (Jef 
ferson).  98 


INDEX. 


393 


Ximena  (Taylor),  288 


Yale  College,  mentioned,  103; 
Cooper  dismissed  from,  131 


Yellow  Violet   The  (Bryant),  147 
Yemassee,  The  (Simms),  256 
Yesterdays      with      Authors 
(Fields),  199 


Zury  (Kirklantl),  3^ 


pancoast's  Untrobuction  to 

EnQlisb  ^Literature. 

By  HENRY  S.  PANCOAST.     556  pp.     i2mo.     $1.25  net. 

"  It  asumes  a  study  of  and  not  about  English  literature; 
it  assumes  that  one  author  differeth  from  another  in  glory 
and  influence,  and  that  in  an  introductory  course  only 
those  of  predominant  influence  can  be  studied." — Prof. 
E.  E.  Wentworth,  Vassar  College. 

"  It  treats  of  movements — is  not  merely  a  catalogue  of 
names  and  a  record  of  critical  ratings.  Not  even  the 
dullest  pupil  can  study  it  without  feeling  the  historical 
and  logical  continuity  of  English  literature." — Nation. 

It  describes  the  political  and  social  conditions  of  the 
successive  periods  ;  notes  foreign  as  well  as  domestic  in 
fluences  ;  emphasizes  the  relations  of  literature  to  history. 

"  Its  criticism  is  of  a  kind  to  stimulate  investigation 
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The  nineteenth  centu/y,  for  the  first  time  in  such  a 
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In  style  it  is  "  interesting,"  says  Prof.  Winchester  of 
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says  Prof.  Gilmore  of  Rochester  University,  "well  writ 
ten,"  says  Prof.  Czarnomska  of  Smith  College. 

It  is  fully  equipped  with  teaching  apparatus.  The 
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London  are  included. 

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FRANCKE'S  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN 
GERMAN   LITERATURE. 

BY  PROF.  KUNO  FRANCKE  OF  HARVARD. 
577  pp.     8vo.     $2.0O,  net. 

A  critical,  philosophical,  and  historical  account  of  German 
literature  that  is  "destined  to  be  a  standard  work  for  both 
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"A  noble  contribution  to  the  history  of  civilization,  and 
valuable  not  only  to  students  of  German  literature,  but  to  all 
who  are  interested  in  the  progress  of  our  race." — The  Hon. 
Andrew  D.  White,  ex-President  of  Cornell  University. 

"  For  the  first  time  German  literature  has  been  depicted 
with  a  spirit  that  imparts  to  it  organic  unity  .  .  .  rich  in  well- 
weighed,  condensed  judgments  of  writers  .  .  .  not  mere  re- 
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Arnold  (Matthew):  Prose  Selections. 

Edited  by  LEWIS  E.  GATES,  Asst.  Professor  in  Harvard,    xci  -f-  348  pp.    goc. 

Includes  The  Function  of  Criticism,  First  Lecture  on  Trans 

lating   Homer,  Literature  and  Science,  Culture  and  Anarchy, 

Sweetness  and  Light,  Compulsory  Education,  "  Life  a  Dream," 

Emerson,  and  twelve  shorter  selections,  including  America. 

Bliss  Perry,  Processor  in  Princeton  :  —  ''  The  selections  seem  to  me 
most  happy,  and  the  introduction  is  even  better  if  possible  than  his 
introduction  to  the  Newman  volume.  Indeed  I  have  read  no  criticism 
of  Arnold's  prose  which  appears  to  me  as  luminous  and  just,  and 
expressed  with  such  literary  charm." 

Browning  :     Selected     Lyrical     and     Dramatic 
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Wuh  the  essay  on  Browning  from  E  C.  Stedman's  "Victorian  Poets." 
Edited  by  EDWARD  T.  MASON  275  pp.  6oc. 

Burke  :  Selections. 

Edited  by  BLISS  PERRY,  Professoi  in  Princeton,  xxvi  -|-  298  pp.  6oc. 
Contents.  Speeches  at  Arrival  at  Bristol,  at  Conclusion  of 
the  Poll  ;  Letters  to  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  to  the  Sheriffs 
of  Bristol,  and  to  a  Noble  Lord;  Address  to  the  King  ;  Selec 
tions  from  The  Sublime  and  the  Beautiful,  from  Thoughts  on 
the  Present  Discontents,  from  Speech  on  the  Nabob  of  Arcot's 
Debts,  from  Impeachment  of  Hastings  (2),  from  Reflections  on 
the  Revolution  in  France  (7,  including  Fiac  Money). 

Edward  Dowden,  the  Author  and  Critic:  —  "  They  seem  to  me  admira 
bly  chosen  and  arranged,  and  the  introduction  brings  various  aspects 
of  Burke's  mind  truly  and  vividly  before  the  reader." 

Coleridge  :  Prose  Extracts. 

Edited  by  HENRY  A.  BEERS,  Professor  in  Ya!e  College.    xix+i^S  pp.    500. 
The  selections,  varying   in  length   from  a  paragraph   to  ten 
or  twenty  pages,  are  mainly  from    Table   Talk  and  Biographia 
Literaria,  but  also  from  ATotes  on  Shakespeare   etc. 


English  Readings  for  Students. 


De  Quincey:  Joan  of  Arc;    The  Mail  Coach. 

Edited    by   JAMES    MORGAN    HART,   Professor    in    Cornell    University. 
xxvi  +  138  pp.     SDC. 

The  introduction  sketches  De  Quincey's  life  and  style. 
Allusions  and  other  points  of  unusual  difficulty  are  explained 
in  the  notes.  This  volume  and  the  Essays  on  Boswell's  John 
son  (see  below)  are  used  at  Cornell  for  elementary  rhetorical 
study. 

Ford:  The  Broken  Heart. 

A  Spartan  Tragedy  in  verse.     Edited  by  CLINTON  SCOLLARD,  Professor 
in  Hamilton  College,     xvi  -f  132  pp.     500.     (Buckram,  700.) 

A  play  that  in  its  repressed  emotion  and  psychological 
interest  furnishes  a  marked  contrast  to  the  feverish  •'  night 
pieces"  common  when  it  was  written.  Charles  Lamb  wrote 
"  1  do  not  know  where  to  find  in  any  play  a  catastrophe  so 
grand,  so  solemn  and  so  surprising  as  this"  [of  The  Broken 
Heart\. 

Johnson.-  Rasselas. 

Edited   by  OLIVER    FARRAR   EMERSON,  Professor  in    Adelbert  College, 
Ivi+i79pp.     soc.     (Buckram,  700.) 

This  book  is  chosen  as  fairly  illustrating  the  style,  thought, 
and  personality  of  the  great  literary  dictator  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  introduction  treats  of  Johnson's  style,  the 
circumstances  under  which  Rasselas  was  written,  and  its  place 
in  the  history  of  fiction.  The  text  is  based  on  the  first  edition. 
The  notes  explain  allusions  and  trace  the  sources  of  some  of 
Johnson's  materials. 

Lyly:  Endimion. 

Edited  by  GEORGE  P   BAKER,  Professor  in  Harvard  College,    cxcvi  +  109 
pp.     850.     (Buckram.  $1.25.) 

Lyly's  plays  really  show  him  to  a  better  advantage  than 
does  the  Euphnes,  by  which  he  is  chiefly  remembered,  and  his 
place  in  English  dramatic  history  makes  it  desirable  that  pn§ 
at  least  should,  be  easily  accessible, 


English  leadings  for   Students. 


Macaulay   and    Carlyle :    Essays    on    Samuel 
Johnson. 

Edited    by   WILLIAM    STRUNK,    Jr.,    Instructor    in    Cornell    University, 
xl+igi  pp.    5"C- 

These  two  essays  present  a  constant  contrast  in  intellectual  and 
moral  methods  of  criticism,  and  offer  an  excellent  introduction  to  the 
study  of  the  literary  history  of  Johnson's  times. 

Marlowe :    Edward   II.      With  the  best   passages 
from  TAMBURLAINE  THE  GREAT,  and  from  his  POEMS. 

Edited  by  the  late  EDWARD  T.  MCLAUGHLIN,  Professor  in  Yale  College. 
xxi-f-i8o  pp.     500.     (Buckram,  yoc.) 

Edward  II. ,  besides  being  Marlowe's  most  important  play,  is  of 
great  interest  in  connection  with  Shakespere.  The  earlier  chronicle 
drama  was  in  Shakespere's  memory  as  he  was  writing  Richard  II.,  as 
various  passages  prove,  and  a  comparison  of  the  two  plays  (sketched 
in  the  introduction)  affords  basis  for  a  study  in  the  development  of 
the  Elizabethan  drama. 

Newman  :  Prose  Selections. 

Edited  by  LEWIS  E.  GATES,  Professor  in  Harvard  College.     Ixil+aaS  pp. 
SQC.     (Buckram,  goc.) 

The  selections  lead  the  reader  through  some  of  the  more  picturesque 
and  concrete  passages  of  Newman's  prose,  to  his  impeachment  of  the 
liberal  and  irreligious  tendencies  of  the  age,  his  insistence  on  the 
powerlessness  of  science  to  make  men  moral,  his  defense  of  super- 
naturalism,  his  ridicule  of  English  prejudice  against  Catholics,  his 
statement  of  the  Catholic  position,  and  finally  to  two  powerful 
imaginative  pictures  of  supernatural  interferences  in  the  natural 
world-order. 

Tennyson:  The  Princess. 

Edited  by  L.  A.  SHEKMAN,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Nebraska.     [/« 
J>reparationl\ 

Postage  8  per  cent,  additional. 

HENRY   HOLT  &  CO.,   29  W.  234  St.,   New  York. 


English  Readings  for  Students. 


Specimens  of  prose  Composition. 

l6mo.      Cloth.      Per  volume,  50^.,  NET. 

Prose  Narration* 

Edited  by  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  Tutor  in  Columbia  College,     xxxviii 
+209  pp. 

Includes  Selections  from  Scott,  Thackeray,  Hawthorne,  Jane 
Austen,  George  Eliot,  Stevenson,  and  Henry  James.  Part  I.  Ele 
ments  of  Narrative — Plot,  Character,  Setting,  and  Purpose.  Part  II. 
Combination  of  the  Elements  of  Narration.  Part  III.  Various 
Kinds  of  Narrative.  Part  IV.  Technique  of  Good  Narrative. 

Prose  Description. 

Edited  by  CHARLES  SEARS  BALDWIN,  Ph.D.,  Instructor  in  Yale  College. 
xlviii+i45  pp. 

Includes:  Ancient  Athens  (Newman) ;  Paris  Before  the  Second 
Empire  (du  Maurier);  Bees  (Burroughs);  Byzantium  (Gibbon); 
Geneva  (Ruskin);  The  Storming  of  the  Bastille  (Carlyle);  La  Gio- 
conda,  etc.  (Pater);  Blois  (Henry  James);  Spring  in  a  Side  Street 
(Brander  Matthews);  A  Night  Among  the  Pines,  etc.  (Stevenson). 

Exposition. 

Edited  by  HAMMOND  LAMONT,  Professor  in  Brown  University.    xxiv+ 
180  pp. 

Includes  :  Development  of  a  Brief  ;  G.  C.  V.  Holmes  on  the 
Steam-engine;  Huxley  on  the  Physical  Basis  of  Life;  Bryce  on 
the  U.  S.  Constitution;  "The  Nation"  on  the  Unemployed; 
Wm.  Archer  on  Albery's  "  Apple  Blossoms";  Matthew  Arnold 
on  Wordsworth,,  etc. 

Argumentation.     MODERN. 

Edited    by  GEORGE   P.  BAKER,  Professor  in   Harvard   College.      i6mo. 
186  pp. 

Lord  Chatham's  speech  on  the  withdrawal  of  troops  from 
Boston,  Lord  Mansfield's  argument  in  the  Evans  case,  the  first 
letter  of  Junius,  the  first  of  Huxley's  American  addresses  on 
evolution,  Erskine's  defence  of  Lord  George  Gordon,  an 
address  by  Beecher  in  Liverpool  during  the  cotton  riots,  and 

specimen  brief. 

Postage  8  per  cent,  additional. 

HENRY   HOLT   &   CO.,    29   W.  23d   St.,    New  York. 


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